Time Child
by Daisidian
Summary: Ranma is confronted by a girl tht claims to his daughter from the future! Why is she so concerned about Ryoga and why does Akane think Hitomi is her daughter?
1. Chapter 1

Well, it's time for another story from me and Sid. Things seem to be going well and my next chapter update for Ranma's Boyfriend should be out soon. This one might be a little longer than the last few chapters, but just by a bit. Anywho!

This little fic was my idea! The premise is a little dark, but overall not insanely dark and I hope it's interesting. As this goes along, more will be reveal and we hope you guys like this chapter.

Sid isn't here right now, but she has to do something right now.

Disclaimer: Sid and I don't own Ranma.

-line-

Hitomi Hibiki sat in her Grandpa Happosai's room after the funeral, an aura of sadness hung over her home after...fresh tears sprang to her incandescent blue eyes when she thought about it. Hitomi was sixteen years old with long, black wavy hair with blue highlights that reached her mid back; tied up into a pigtail. Her hair matched both her father's. Ryoga's hair and her other father's, Ranma when he was in his 'daddy form.' Her figure was a younger version of her mother's buxom, curvy hourglass and she stood one inch taller then Ranma's 'mommy' form. She had subtle muscles and a firm body from years of doing martial arts as that was her family's trade. She was way advanced for her age and already teaching beginner's classes.

She sighed as she carefully sorted his lingerie by colours and styles and meticulously catalogued each piece. It took a long time, but she was in no hurry and welcomed the busy work. She carefully stacked the custom designed clear, plastic-topped suitcases with their velvet interiors, the better to showcase his, 'lovelies.' She started cleaning the rest of the room. The room was rather small so it took no time to dust the few possessions that he had. She straightened his closet which contained many matching diminutive purple gi. She painstakingly dusted the sake bottles that he hid from his old disciples (her Uncle Soun and her Grandfather Genma) as they loved sake way too much for his liking.

She smiled as she worked, lots of people thought he was a pervert, but he'd been like a playmate to her and she was genuinely fond of him. She knew he was a pervert who had begged her to model his dainties, but would have smashed a boy's face in for even looking at her the wrong way. He was an odd combination of perverted grandfather and gallant Sir Knight, either way she liked the old goat. She finished by dusting a box that he kept his most valuable treasures in, she was surprised to find it unlocked as he valued his privacy as much as he liked disturbing others.

He'd shown her most things over the years, but as she was curious, she opened it. She sifted carefully through the contents and felt something soft, containing something hard under her hand. Cradling it, she lifted it out; it was a green silk scarf of a weave so fine that it was practically transparent, such as a young girl would give to her lover. She untied it to find a beautiful, but shattered red antique mirror; the silk lovingly protected the shards of glass from getting lost. Hitomi's heart went out to him that he seemed to have carefully collected every sliver of glass.

Hitomi had another hobby that she'd learned from an ancient Chinese man who ran a shop in town which brought in the occasional cursed object. She used to go in so often to watch him painstakingly restoring antiques that he'd taken her on as apprentice. She'd managed to surpass his skills and invented several bonding agents of her own, including a mirrored one that mimicked glass when the excess was carefully removed with a solvent after it dried. She sorted the glass piece by piece like a jigsaw puzzle until it was complete. Then she painstakingly, with the use of fine tweezers and a tiny brush, pieced it back together in its frame and set it down to dry. She changed into her own preferred outfit of somewhat punkish tight black pants and a short red tank top that showed off her taut belly. She pulled off her slippers to slip into the studded black combat boots that her parents were always at odds with her about. Her parents...she reminded herself and wiped away a tear as she touched one of her father's old bandana's that he'd given her for when she wished to tie her hair back.

She turned to look at the picture that she always kept on her dresser, it was taken on her parents wedding day; they both looked happy, but nervous in their matching tuxes. She lifted it up and stared into their youthful faces. They both looked so young in the picture, they had been only slightly older than Hitomi when they had gotten married. Hitomi being the only girl born of their union, was engaged to Aunt Akane's son Reizo as that was a condition of their marriage. To everyone's delight, Hitomi had been in love with him from diaperhood. When other girls asked her if she minded her arranged marriage, she would just smile and say "have you noticed how hot he is?" He was handsome, gentle and kind...and one of the strongest opponents that she'd ever come up against.

She ran her finger from one young face to the other; their marriage hadn't been ideal, full of silly fights as they both were hotheads, gentle razing and lots of love. A tear welled up in her eye to see them standing side by side as was meant to be, not alone as of them was now. She pulled the mirror closer to herself to see if was drying properly and didn't notice when a single tear struck the glass. "I wish I could be with you both one more time" she said to the picture. She gasped when the mirror flared to life and light spilled out of it, until it filled the room; quickly she grasped it and vanished from sight.

The first sound she heard was "Prepare to die Ranma!" and a shape whizzed by her. She gasped when she recognized the younger version of her father.

"Same old song and dance Ryoga, don't you have any new moves?" taunted the airborne pigtailed martial artist as he punched towards the other boy. Then Ranma realized that they were about to hit a girl who seemed to have come out of nowhere. "Watch out Ryoga" he cried and threw himself at him to knock him out of the way, so they went down in a tangle.

"Ranma what the hell?" Ryoga cried and glared up at the shorter boy on top of him.

"We could have seriously hurt that girl" Ranma explained getting up.

"What girl?" he demanded. He gulped when arms were thrown around him and he was suddenly staring at a large, lightly tanned bosom inches from his face. He got a nosebleed and slowly looked up into the pretty face of the girl who held him. She was weeping softly and holding him close, she was beautiful with ink black hair, bright blue eyes and a baby face. She reminded him of someone, but he couldn't think who. She stroked his face in a way that made him uncomfortable and said in a voice choked with emotion "It really is you..."

"D-do I know you?" he stammered as a blush stained his cheeks.

"Yes who are you?" Ranma asked. The girl turned and squealed and then she was hugging Ranma.

"Ranma do you have yet another fiancée?" Akane called over, her hands were balled into fists and a vein was throbbing on her forehead. Hitomi looked and her and whispered, "Aunt Akane" too low for Ranma or Ryoga to hear.

Ranma hastily pushed her away and protested "Come on 'Kane, I don't even know her!"

"Yeah who are you anyways?" Ryoga asked.

Hitomi could only stare from one to the other and then admitted "I'm Ranma's daughter from the future."

Ranma studied her, her clothes were a tad odd, but martial artists showed up in Nerima in all sorts of crazy get ups. "That's crazy talk..." he snorted; shrugging at the idea as soon as it came into his head. He had more important things to do than to listen to some insane girl ramble on about nonsense, besides, Shampoo was already an expert on talking gibberish.

"I can prove it!" Hitomi protested. "You have a birthmark on your right butt cheek that looks like a rabbit!" she said; getting up and pointing at the black haired Saotome.

Ranma blushed, "How could you possibly know that, have you been spying on me?" he demanded, glaring at the strange girl that resembled his girl form.

"Is it true?" Ryoga blinked, "Ranma the Bunny Butt...," he said in amusement.

"Shut up." Ranma said with his face flaming; while crossing his arms.

"I know many things about you, you hum... 'daydream believer' by The Monkees after you make love. I guess you don't know that yet" Hitomi said when his tomato-red face turned the colour of puce. "Your right knee always aches the day before it rains; your favourite colour is red..." she started and told him everything that she knew about him intimately.

"She does look a lot like your girl side" Akane said cautious. "Maybe she really is our daughter"

"Don't be a moron, you uncute tomboy..." Ranma said, though he was starting to have his doubts.

"What did you call me? Don't bother speaking to me!" Akane said with a huff and stalked off fuming. _'The nerve of that jerk! Even if there's proof that we actually become something in the future, he still acts like that! Argh!_ _What do I even see in him!' _she thought.

"Akane!" Ranma said and chased off after her, Hitomi's strange revelation forgotten.

"Are you really their daughter?" Ryoga asked her intrigued. If she was then that meant that Ranma was going to marry Akane, he studied her but failed to see anything of Akane in her. If anything she looked like a brunette version of the female Ranma with her petite, yet buxom figure.

"Actually, there's been a mistake I'm..," she started.

Flashback

Many families would go out and do things then out back home in order to rest and relax. Though that wasn't the case when it came to Hitomi's family, no. Ryoga and Ranma always planned training trips for their daughter and sons. Where would be the best place to train? A quiet calm and secluded place, such as the mountain areas or near Mt. Fugi; which was for special family vacations or just to have fun and visit the near by districts or villages.

Hitomi considered herself lucky, her parents were strong martial artists and although she had two dads. She'd be able to teach anyone a lesson if they insulted her for having two dads and one mom, yeah, magic was becoming much more known in Nerima. Thanks to her very existence! She was technically a product of magical energy and existed as a normal person. She thanked the stars for not getting the curse of either of her parents; especially her father's curse.

She did enjoy petting Ryoga when he was in such a state; she could see why her auntie Akane enjoyed petting him so much. Once Akane found out about him being P-chan, Ryoga had had to pay the consequences, which he did when Akane started hitting him. Not that it really affected him that much; he was built to endure pain and such. Acting through it hurt gave auntie Akane a sort of satisfaction that she needed from hitting Ryoga; being that Ranma and Ryoga had gotten together. Even though she'd moved on by then to someone a little more different.

Ranma's curse wouldn't even really affect her. She had already been a girl... what would it do?

The three family members were currently walking through the forest; searching for their training area spot. "Hm... should be there soon." Ranma said, reading the map while scratching the side of her head.

Ryoga rolled his eyes, "And here I was thinking I was the only one with a bad sense of direction...," he chuckled.

"Can it!' Ranma growled; she still hated it when Ryoga was right.

"Uh... mom." Hitomi tried.

"Not now Hitomi, can't you see I'm trying to get us to-,"

"Uh... Ranma, we're here." Ryoga stated, tried of watching his wife stare at a map.

Ranma looked up from her map in order to see that they had indeed gotten to their destination, "Heh... even when I think I'm lost, I still get to where I wanna' go." Ranma smirked and continued on forward. The area was rather nice; it was a small clearing where they could set up camp and sleep for the night. This hadn't been their first time to this training area, but it was certainly a nice one with a river close up in case they wanted to shower or just cool off. All except for Ryoga, who'd have to change into P-chan. Though they never held it against him and often times would hold onto him when bathing or swimming in the lake. There was even a nice waterfall more down stream, but where they were at, had much more weak stream and wouldn't cause Ryoga any problems.

"So... I get lost; at least I have you two to be there for me." Ryoga added. Then turned to his wife and smiled lightly, "Right, Ranma?"

"Yeah, yeah... you've always got me, honey." Ranma replied, crossing her arms and they began setting up the many supplies they'd need.

"Hey... I'm still here, ya' know." Hitomi stated, not wanting to see her folks get all lovey dovey on a training mission; which those two seemed to have a tendency of doing very often.

"Sorry...," Ranma and Ryoga both said.

When all had been said and done, they gathered around the fire and watched as the ember pieces would crack break fall, and then gently float up to the sky, "Hey... have I ever told you about that time were I dressed as your fathers lover?" Ranma asked, turning to Hitomi.

"No, you didn't..." Hitomi smiled, turning to her father smiling.

Ryoga placed his hand to his head and blushed, "Damn it Ranma...," he sighed. He really wasn't in the mood to be made fun of, but then again he had chosen his rival to bare his children, so, this was his own fault.

Ranma of course went on to tell her about the first time that Ranma had pretended to be his lover, in was of course in order to gain what she wanted, though it the ended with something funny happening or some funny comment Ranma would make. "So, that goes to show ya' that your old man here is a sucker for blue eyed girls."

Hitomi giggled and turned to her father, "Did you really fall for that dad? I mean... it was obvious it was mom!"

Ryoga blushed and stared at Ranma, then smirked calmly, "Well, you see... I didn't know it was your MOTHER because she's sooo convincing as a woman, you could say she's that convincing all the time." Ryoga countered.

Ranma blinked a few time until it hit him, "Hey! Are you saying I can't be manly?" she demanded.

"No, no... that you're just a girl." Ryoga looking to the side.

"Hey! Y'know what, I'm more manly than you and I can prove it!"

"With me here mom... I don't think you can, I'm kinda' proof that you're really kinda' womanly." Hitomi laughed with her father joining in as well.

From there the night went on as it normally did, they kept on chatting and planning what to do for the next day. When the late it had grown cold, they turned to each other and said their goodnights; Hitomi having her own tent, being that she insisted she have her own. Ranma of course went into the same tent with Ryoga, no way was she gonna' miss out on sleeping next to her Ryoga, being that their sleep was the most peaceful time they'd share together.

Ranma dressed in her boxers and muscle shirt, turned here head to Ryoga as she held onto him from the side, "You know... all these years and we still kinda' bug each other, right?"

"Uh-huh...," Ryoga nodded. "I'd rather not go back to those times when we fought over things, but looks like we can't help but still keep some of that past, now can we?" Ryoga asked.

"But ya know what?" Ranma asked, moving up to her and pecking his cheek, "I wouldn't change a thing."

The days went on as usual; their training continued and they told more and more stories. Hitomi would even say some of her life problems, such as how some guys have been asking her out; despite the fact that she had two dads and was engaged.

Through out this particular day, Ranma had a strange aching in her knee. "I think it's gonna' rain... and we need some more firewood if we're gonna' make anything to eat," Ranma commented, then turned to Hitomi. "I'm gonna' need some more fire wood... that dead tree I saw on the other side of the river will really help for tonight, can you go get your father for me?"

"Uh... sure, did you remember to give him some rocks to find his way back here?" Hitomi asked.

"Yeah, he should be getting here." Ranma replied, and then set off in hopes of beating the storm that was coming up. So, she set up in hopes of getting there before the water came down.

When Ryoga had returned, he saw Hitomi, "Where' your mom, Ranma?" he asked, having gotten back from gathering a few berries for them to enjoy.

"She said something about getting some firewood... she said she saw a huge dead log that'd make great firewood for the campfire, so, she'll have to cross the river to get it." Hitomi said, and then saw Ryoga running off in search of her, picking up his umbrella that was plopped against a near by tree.

"Ranma you idiot!" Ryoga exclaimed, knowing the general direction of the river he ran off in search of her. It was his worried nature that caused him to think irrationally.

Hitomi gasped once she saw that her father was going off on his own, "Dad! Wait!" she exclaimed, following him.

Ranma was currently carrying the wood over her shoulder, pacing herself as she knew that she'd have to save her strength in order to chuck the huge piece over to the other side of the river. Though she would've been better off doing this task as man, she had promised herself that she'd give Ryoga time as a woman. "Huh... it's kinda' raining now," Ranma commented, raising one of her hands up and feeling the cold water splash on it gently.

When she reached the side of the river, she saw that Ryoga had been jumping the same stones she had used in order to get to the other side of the river; Ryoga had his umbrella open as he was skipping the stones, "Ryoga!' Ranma shouted.

"Ranma?" Ryoga gasped, then as he jumped the next stone. The rock gave way to the added weight and caused Ryoga to sink in the river.

Hitomi had also just reached where her father, Ryoga was and saw him fall into the water; changing him into P-chan. "Bwee...!" The small piglet cried as he was being taken away by the current, which seemed to be picking up quicker and quicker as the seconds went by.

Ranma gasped and saw that if she jumped into the water she'd be picked up and by the current as well, then she'd be in the same position as Ryoga was, but she was a clever one. "There's only one way to do this!" She exclaimed, crossing her hands together and launching a golden beam from her hands. "Pride of The Fierce Tiger!" She shouted, blasting the water closest to where Ryoga was. The blast was intense enough to send P-chan in the air.

From there Ranma made a mad dash in the air and attempted to catch Ryoga while in mid air. "Ryogaaa...!" she shouted, reaching her hands out for him as he also tried to reach for her; unfortunately for them the reach wasn't good enough, Ranma missed and landed on the other side of the river where Hitomi had currently been running to in order to keep up with her father and mother.

"Mom!" She shouted, helping her up.

"Come on, we need to get your dad before he reaches the waterfall!" Ranma shouted as she got up and they both chased the poor P-chan.

Ryoga struggled and fought against the current, it was no use... his cursed form was too weak to get out, and even if he could he'd still struggle with all his might; such was the force of nature. All he could think about was if he was going to live, live to see his Ranma and daughter once more. Though some of his thoughts were distracted by the amount of rocks he had kept on hitting, damaging him fro each angle and making his focus even more strained. He swore he could hear his Ranma's and Hitomi's voices, screaming and calling to him as he fought and squealed.

He was now barely conscious and it seemed that he had reached his end, the waterfall had come.

"RYOGA!' Ranma cried.

"DAD!" Hitomi cried.

Those were the last few words he heard before he fell from the waterfall.

Ranma and Hitomi wouldn't allow Ryoga to die, they just couldn't. They searched and searched for Ryoga till the very next morning, not stopping until they came across him. When they checked the area below the waterfall, they eventually came across a terrible site.

Hitomi gasped and turned away, tears falling from her eyes as she saw that her father was currently beaten and limps broken while on the ground. "Hitomi... w-we need to get Ryoga back to the campsite, we need to treat his wounds, please... we have ta' worry!' Ranma exclaimed as she picked up her unconscious husband.

When they had arrived, they changed him back and did their best to treat his wounds. Ranma stepped out of the tent and sighed, lowering her head as she sat down on the sitting logs beside the campsite. "He's not going to make it... is he?" Hitomi choked out.

"I-I don't think so...," Ranma said, her eyes watering "if only I hadn't missed, damn it!' she cried.

The following day had included Ranma and Hitomi taking back Ryoga's body to Nerima and telling everyone the tragic news. They had set up a funeral service in honor of the Lost Man, which had been done. Both Ranma and Hitomi had remained rather timid and numb, though they had cried at the funeral service. Then came the moment were they had buried him, everyone spoke fondly of Ryoga. Even some people that they never thought would say anything kind about him.

On his tombstone the letters were "Eternally Lost In Our Hearts and Now Eternally Lost in the Kingdom of Heaven."

End of Flash Back

Ryoga stared blanky at her and found that saying something was nearly impossible.

-line-

Please share your thoughts with us.


	2. Chapter 2

DaisukiFox: Hey everyone, I have a lot to say now. I feel as though I should begin with addressing the question of... where have I been? If you've read Fatal Attraction: The NabikiXKuno side story. You'd know that I've been in a writing slump and have slowly been trying to get myself back into the writing game. So far... so good. On onto something else, I will finally get to work on Ranma's Boyfriend... when this chapter is posted.

Now, one more thing! I didn't enjoy writing the RanmaXAkane scene in this. I thought that maybe I could give a RanmaXAkane scene, but, the thing is... I just can't, it's not my thing and never shall me. So, if you've ever been expecting anything RANMAXAKANE, don't get your hopes up because it's never going to happen. I don't hate the pairing, it's just not in me to read it or to write it;for too long, and I'm afraid that you'll never get anything like that from me. ^^'

Sorry to my friend Materia-Blade. You can say your side of the AU note now, Siddy.

Sid: I'll admit that I've held this up badly. Sorry Foxy the good news is that my life is finally becoming stable again :) Hope you all love this chapter as much as were enjoyed writing it.

We don't own Ranma; we just have a heck of a lot of fun making him do what we want.

Rolls credits...

Ryoga blinked at the girl, when she had told him about her past, it was too much for him to take in. This girl was Ranma's daughter, how was this at all possible? To even fathom this thought for more than a second was complete torture to him. If that hadn't been enough to convince him, he noticed how similar she was to Saotome. Hitomi's eye's seemed to tell a tale, much like Ranma's did. It was as if she had experiences that which matched Ryoga's own, he knew this from the times he caught himself staring into rivers and contemplating his life and its direction; it was the look of a martial artist.

"I-it can't be!" Ryoga exclaimed, and shook his head. He stood before her and turned his head away from her, "You can't be his!" Ryoga shouted, then turned to her and glared with an amount of hatred that burned inside of him. This had to be some way of deceiving him, some way of throwing him off his game, making him believe that Akane and Ranma had a child. As if that was even possible, Akane hated Ranma!

Hitomi leaned back and then stood up, staring at the look of anger that was directed to her. Where was the gentle man that raised her? The man that had always cared for her and her brothers? Had treat her wounds? The man that taught her how to write? The man that helped teach her martial arts? The man that taught her the Breaking Point technique? Then it finally hit her, this Ryoga was a much less refined version of her father.

"Look, I'm his daughter!" and with that she turned to a nearby wall and narrowed her eyes. From there she shot out her hands and sent them slamming across the rock hard brick wall. The amount of force she used caused the wall to crumble into pieces.

Ryoga stared and then shook his head, forcing himself to deny the fact that she knew the trick, but he then remembered that anyone could learn that, "That doesn't prove anything!" Ryoga roared, holding out one arm with a closed fist out in front of him. " Cologne probably taught you that same move!"

Hitomi glared for a second before slapping her forehead, _'When dad said he used to be thick headed... he wasn't kidding,' _Hitomi thought. From there she raised her head and linked her eyes with his, "Why could have done that? I can't have learned that from her because Great-Auntie Cologne retired and moved to Florida to join a nudist colony with her seventh husband long before I was born"

Ryoga paused and thought about that for a second before shaking the disturbing image out of his head. "Its gotta' be part of some stupid scheme Saotome's working on!" the lost boy replied, and then crossed his arms. Yet in every word that was exchanged between Ryoga and Hitomi, Ryoga always felt a sense of doubt inside himself.

Hitomi sighed and found herself unable to stop looking at Ryoga, she still only remembered her kind father, the one that had raised her. This one was proving to be nothing like him. When she'd first met him in this time-line, he'd seemed calm and had that adorably confused face she loved to see when she'd ask him questions about women's needs and things about boys. "Okay... I am part of Ranma's tricks... he sent me here to try and keep you away from him and aunt-," she paused and cleared her throat, "from him and Akane."

Ryoga huffed before turning away from her and narrowing his eyes, "Damn you, Saotome...," he stated, glad that this girl was willing to admit that she was part of some crazy idea that Ranma had prepared for him. Too bad he hadn't counted on him being so clever and for his little assistant to have an actual conscious.

Hitomi didn't like to see Ryoga take her mother's name in vein, but she had to keep reminding herself that this was a different time, a time before the two were in love with each other, as they were in her version of the present.

"Dad-," she found herself pausing once more as Ryoga shot her a glare, "I mean... Ryoga."

Ryoga raised a brow, wondering what she could possibly want now that he had exposed her.

"Can I at least talk with you...?" she asked, her eyes watering, this was probably the only time she could spend with him. She had been sent to the past where she could talk to her father... before his untimely demise.

"I don't know what the hell you'd like to talk about...," he paused and tried to remember her name, which came almost instantly when he remembered her crazy tale. "Hitomi."

What could she talk to him about that she hadn't already known? There was so much she could tell him about his past, but would that at all affect his stubborn attitude to keep on his Akane induced track. She figured maybe she could spend time with him if she pretended to know nothing about him. Perhaps she could use her wits, somehow change the time line and keep her parents from taking that trip. That was if she didn't destroy her own future in the process.

"Uh... like... I don't know... can I just please be around you?" she begged, moving her hands out in front of her to make her pleading all that more believable.

Ryoga blushed and looked aside, not really used to having any girls literally begging him to talk to them. Ryoga looked down and then back to her before he started, "I don't kno-"

"Wha!" Hitomi cried, falling to her knees and crying in the same fashion Soun would.

Not being one to make girls cry, the lost boy moved over to her and waved his hands around, "W-wait!" Ryoga said, "O-okay! You can! J-just stop crying!"

"Okay!" Hitomi shouted before wrapping her arms around Ryoga, holding him close as if it was like the old days.

Ryoga's eyes blinked in surprise, had he just been duped by a pretty girl? "Heh...," Ryoga uttered then pulled back and glared at her for a moment, knowing that she had just tricked him. He had to remind himself that this girl wasn't completely to blame. She just wanted to hang around him, which seemed strange to him. She'd already confessed to being part of some crazy idea that Ranma's insane mind cooked up.

Hitomi continued to smile at how clever she was, "So, where to?" She asked and then batted her eyelashes at him and smiled at him.

The way she batted eyelashes reminded Ryoga of the cuteness of a puppy, a puppy that one would just want to cuddle. Though it felt familiar in a way... why? Ryoga couldn't exactly explain, it just had something to do with her looks. Not to mention that little fang that poked out from the side of her mouth. 'Wait, fang?' Ryoga's brain questioned him; he didn't have an answer for it..."Is that...?" he paused and pointed to her fang.

"Is what, what?" She asked, blinking at him with those beautiful blue eyes of hers.

The lost boy shook his head and looked away, the tiniest bit of red stained his upper cheeks. "Let's just go...," Ryoga commented and then turned in the direction of a general food store. That's when he figured he could use this to his advantage, "can you get me to the store?"

Hitomi giggled and nodded her head, finding her father's embarrassment all too amusing, "Sure, I can get us there way faster than you can," she replied, then ran over to him and wrapped her hand around his arm.

Ryoga's eyes went wide as the black haired girl grabbed onto him; the side of her chest leaned close enough for his body to feel the swell of her healthy young bosom. Ryoga's mouth hung open as he felt his nose start to bleed; this was all too much for him to handle. And to think she wanted to spend time with someone like him!

Ranma & Akane

The pigtailed boy walked alongside the fence that led them back to the Tendo Dojo. With his hands behind his head, he glanced at Akane; she seemed to be pouting over their last argument. "Look... Kane, that girl was just pretending to be someone. I honestly have no idea who she is," Ranma stated, leaning his head over to her a bit, but still maintaining his balance. "So, would ya' quit being all annoyed and junk!"

The furious look in her eyes told Ranma that she wasn't going to forgive him, "Ranma," she stated, in a calm tone that was known for becoming a storm of anger and annoyance, "It's the principal that counts!" she declared.

Ranma leaned back and found himself scared to even lock eyes with her, "W-what're you getting so work up about?" he demanded, regaining his composure, "D-do you want us to have children and stuff?"

Now that Akane had gotten some steam off of her chest, she realized that maybe this wasn't something they should be talking about and something she probably shouldn't have been angry about. Though at the time she couldn't help herself. "Uh... s-still... even if she wasn't really telling the truth and is another manic like Shampoo or Ukyo," Akane paused and reached her hand up close to her chest, "you didn't have to be so hurtful, Ranma," she finished.

Now it was Ranma's turn to pause, the pigtailed boy sighed, "Fine... guess I was just kinda' mad that some crazy girl came around claiming she's my kid," Ranma apologized, turning to Akane.

The two shared a strange moment when they locked their eyes; it was as if they were speaking to each other in a way that neither entirely understood, whether emotional nor caring or just two teens sharing an awkward stare.

"Uh... not like I'd ever wanna' have kids with such a tomboy!" Ranma declared, looking away with a small tint of red on his cheeks.

Akane had taken that awkward moment as something deeper between them; somewhat of a symbol of the connection that the two shared. That was until Ranma completely broke their moment, this caused Akane's anger to flare up once more. "Argh!" she grunted and threw her book bag at him, sending Ranma falling to his watery doom. That watery doom was of course...being forced to be a girl.

"Bleh!" Ranma spat, sitting up in the ditch. Her red hair was damp along with her suddenly too large clothes, "I really hate that tomboy sometimes..." she growled. Once Ranma had gotten out of the ditch she squeezed the water out of her pigtail and sighed. Placing her hands in her pockets and she hoped she would at least dry off enough to walk around at the Tendo's. Coming in dripping like a wet dog would only make more work for Kasumi, and she didn't want that.

"Gotta' wonder what's up with her...," Ranma grunted, shaking her head and then making her way to the Tendo home.

Tendo Dojo

Soun was currently engaged in a battle of wits playing shoji, though his opponent was far from having any wits. Genma preferred to trick Soun and switch the board around so he could have the upper hand, but by this point even if Genma switched the board around Soun would still manage to still win. "I have to admit Saotome, my old friend..."

"Admit what... Tendo?" Genma said, smirking as he had switched the board around while pointing out a rare Saki bottle; which couldn't possibly be there. They didn't own any and the possibility that anything like that would ever materialize out of thin was ludicrous. It was the idea that caught Soun's attention; any small window of opportunity was enough to give Saotome ample time to change things up, literally.

"Even with all your _cheating_...," Soun stated, narrowing his eyes, "I'm quite proud of myself for defeating you, even with the circumstances changed."

"Me?" Genma paused, making a shocked looking face, "Why... I would never cheat!" Genma stated, crossing his arms and shaking his head, "Honestly Tendo... if you're not willing to accept the fact that I'm a better shoji player, you might as well stop playing," and with that he opened his eyes, "And who says you've won?"

Soun rolled his eyes, there Genma was howling nonsense in order to receive some sort of guilt trip for saying what was obviously true, "I say, I win," and with that, he moved around a few pieces and ended up winning the game. "That's game, Saotome."

"WHA!" Genma said, looking down at the shoji board to found that he had indeed lost.

Soun smirked with a rather cocky expression.

"Uh...," Genma blinked, then turned to Soun and chuckled nervously, "best two outta' three?"

"Not on your life, Saotome!" Soun declared, fed up with having to rematch Genma over and over again, this one game he had actually won and he wasn't about to waste more time with Genma changing the board around.

Kasumi giggled to herself while in the kitchen, there was really something about two old-timers fighting over a simple game that made her laugh; not out of spite or annoyance, it was just flat out entertaining to hear her father get so worked up. The eldest sister was so amused that she hadn't noticed that someone had slammed the main house's front door shut.

"That jerk!" Akane shouted, taking her shoes off and going upstairs.

"Oh my...," Kasumi said, placing her hands to her mouth nervously. This had to be one of their normal arguments, that or someone had said something stupid that had spiked Akane's anger. This caused Ranma and Akane to have heated arguments, arguments that tortured those around them.

The blue haired Tendo entered her room and closed the door behind her. Wishing that she could have P-chan in her room in order for her to confess her problems to him, just so someone could listen and watch. A person that wouldn't judge her for her irrational behavior... but that did pose an interesting question. Why had she been so annoyed with Ranma's claims? Is it that Ranma is naturally infuriating and nerve wracking?

All Akane knew at the moment was that she was mad at him, mad at him for saying he didn't want to be married to her, the tomboy of the three sisters. The one that stood on a completely different playing field than all the others, the one that differed from the rest of the girls, but still somehow managed to attract so many other boys to her. It seemed that even if she showed the slightest interest in Ranma, he would pass it off and distance himself from her.

Was it something about her that Ranma didn't like? Other then the obvious fact that she did attempt to hurt him, but all of those were provoked actions; ones where he really did deserve a good bashing.

"Why do I even bother with that jerk...?" Akane muttered, going over to plop herself down on her bed. Her face softened and she moved over to grab her pillow and glanced to the side, it really made no sense to her. These confusing thoughts weren't what she was about, she was supposed to remain calm and collected, but when it came to Ranma...she got furious. She grunted, finding that her thoughts had been going around in circles.

The blue haired sister turned to her window and stared outside, it seemed like it'd be close to the time when the sun set.

Ranma

A few minutes later

The redheaded girl finally reached the Tendo home and knew that dinner was in the works, but that wasn't all that was on her mind. What bothered her the most was, well, the obvious fact that Akane got mad, slapped her with a book bag and left her in a ditch to change into his girl form. Yeah, this was her ideal marriage partner, she could see totally see herself getting a divorce within the first few months of marriage. If he didn't kill her...

Ranma opened the front door and stepped in, only to be greeted with Soun crossing his arms and glaring hatefully at the redheaded girl. "Ah man...," Ranma groaned.

"Ranma... please tell me why my darling Akane is in her room, in a huff...," Soun Tendo questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Look!" Ranma explained, throwing her arms out in front of her. "She's like this because some crazy girl came and started-," she got as far as saying before Soun raised his hand and turned in the direction of the back porch.

"Saotome...," Soun growled.

"What!" Genma said, placing his hand over his chest. "I swear there isn't anymore fiancées...," he paused and then glanced to his side. He took the hand he placed on his chest and brought it up to the side of his face to scratch the side of his cheek. "At least none that I can recall at the moment...," he admitted.

"Ya' didn't let me finish!" Ranma exclaimed, then lowered her head for a moment and adorned a serious look, "It was about some girl calling herself mine and Akane's daughter, which makes no sense since we ain't married and science hasn't learned how to time travel... if they did, I think something like that would've happened by now," Ranma stated, then turned to Soun and remembered that he wanted an explanation for Akane's attitude; since she was the cause for it, so, as usual, she was apologizing for saying something she didn't mean." Kane's mad because she thought this girl was another fiancée I didn't know about and then the girl told us she was our daughter and I didn't believe her, Akane got mad and left, I tried talking to her, but I knew that wasn't gonna' work," Ranma said, rolling her eyes, then continuing, "so, when we were walking over her, we got into another weird argu-" Ranma paused and shook her head. "But what does it matter!" Ranma exploded, shaking her head, "Kane's over reacting and I ain't apologizing because I didn't do anything!"

The look Soun's face seemed to have hardened when Ranma explained all of this, "Ranma!" Soun shouted, with such fierce emotion that it made Ranma lean back in fear. "There's finally evidence that you two will have a successful marriage and you toss her to the wind like some cheap rag doll!"

"B-but she's just some craz-," Ranma tried to say.

"You know how things can happen here in our small district!" Soun shot back, getting Ranma with a very true fact. "Now, please get her over here and make her explain herself... I will not have you ignoring family simply because you assume someone is insane."

Ranma sighed and crossed her arms, "Fine... not like I have a choice," Ranma stated, turning around and going back to search for her supposed daughter.

Ryoga removed money from the ATM at the store and noted that his trust fund allowance had been deposited that month. It was never a nice thing to lose a relative, but losing a wealthy one who bestows their fortune on their only grandson isn't so bad when he's a nomadic perpetually lost wanderer. "Okay now if we can only find the Neko Hanten, I'll buy us dinner" he said.

Hitomi, who knew that it hadn't moved from its original location in her time, said "that's easy, it's only a couple of blocks that way" she said pointing.

"Perfect" Ryoga said turned in the opposite direction. He blushed when she wrapped her arms around his own and a firm body was placed against his side. He looked down into her cerulean blue orbs. She smiled up at him in a way that was simply endearing and said "come on Da-Ryoga. I'll show you the way." That she was related to Ranma in some way was undeniable, Ryoga realized as he studied her closer. With her hair in a pigtail, she looked like the female Ranma in a wig. She was tiny but moved with the ease of a skilled martial artist, she was...gorgeous Ryoga realized.

As if she was sensing his thoughts, Hitomi said "like what you see?" and turned those incredible eyes on him again, this made it clear to him why her parents (whoever they were) had given her that name.

"So say I pretend that I believe that you're Ranma's daughter. Does that make me your Uncle Ryoga or something like that?" he asked cautiously. He sensed that she didn't seem to belong there with him; that and the cell phone she wore on her belt looked way advanced even for Japan .

"You're special to me alright" she said flashing him a smile. "You run a dojo with your wife and have four children, a set of twin boys, another boy and a girl as your youngest. You're a well respected person who's known for his sound judgment, generosity and devotion to his family.

"Do I marry Akane?" he asked.

"No you marry a beautiful woman who's much more suited to you" she said.

Ryoga smiled "I know that none of this is true, but do I know her?"

"You do and you don't. She's someone that you know and have overlooked" Hitomi said after a pause.

"Well that solves that" Ryoga said drily "you're quite cryptic and make little sense. Can't I even get a hint? Not that I believe you. I think you look like Ranma because you're his cousin or something and he dragged you into this. Which it too bad because you seem like a nice girl" Ryoga said and then imitated a boiled lobster when his arms were suddenly full of firm female curves.

"Oh thank you Ryoga, it means so much to me that you like me" she squealed, giving a bounce that did 'interesting' things to Ryoga...and caused him to get a nose bleed. He gently pushed her away and said, "look Hitomi, you can't go around hugging people you don't know. It's confusing and could give people the wrong impression of you"

She got misty eyed at the fatherly tone in his voice; it was just like old times. "I promise I'll be more careful in the future. Hey look at the Neko Hanten, it hasn't aged a bit! In my time, these are all over Japan , Chinese the United States " she declared, giving the building a friendly pat before ducking in.

Ryoga could only pause at the idea of the Neko Hanten becoming a chain. "Then who does Shampoo marry?" he asked out of curiosity.

Hitomi opened her mouth to respond, when a familiar voice screeched "Airen" and she found herself in the tight embrace of a purple haired teenager.

"What? Who?" she stammered, unable to link her stately and loving aunt with this glomping stranger.

"Ranma come see Shampoo to take her for too too fun date, yes?" she asked, staring into the stunned Hitomi's eyes. "You dye hair while in girl form, I like it" she said brightly.

"Aunt Shampoo, I think you've mistaken me from someone else" she said, struggling to get away from her octopus like grip.

"No you my airen" she said happily and hugged her even harder.

Ryoga enjoyed watching the spectacle at first but then started feeling sorry for the confused looking girl "actually she's not who you think she is, she's..." he began

"Rannnnnnnnma" Mousse cried, adjusting his glasses. "I get sick of you and your stupid disguises; unhand Shampoo" he demanded.

Hitomi was stunned by the teenaged versions of her beloved friends and family. In the future Shampoo was a loving wife, mother and co-owner of a thriving business with Uncle Mousse. They had a loving marriage and always had time for their children and various friends' children, either related or not. These two were annoying, Shampoo was clingy and Mousse loud and demanding.

"Uncle Mousse, Aunt Shampoo; there's been some mistake. I'm not Ranma. My name is Hitomi; I'm Ranma's daughter from the future" she said cautiously.

"What? You can't be. There's no such thing as time travel" Mousse declared. "You're just Ranma in a dark wig"

"You definitely my airen" Shampoo said, giving her a tight squeeze and a jiggle that cause even Hitomi, who wasn't into girls, to get a nosebleed (she was Ryoga's daughter too after all).

Ryoga gave Hitomi's pigtail a gentle tug to show that she wasn't wearing a wig and then dug her out of Shampoo's arms.

"Hey since when you help Ranma?" Shampoo protested as his powerful arms wrenched Hitomi from her.

Hitomi fought the urge to snuggle into those familiar arms and merely gave him a grateful smile. "I'm not Ranma, I'm his daughter. We've always looked like sisters when he's in his female form, but she has red hair and both my parents have dark hair, so I do too" she explained.

Both Shampoo and Mousse regarded her suspiciously and began to see minute differences: Hitomi was slightly taller then Ranma's female form, her skin was slightly darker and her breasts fuller. "You not be my daughter, Shampoo no have dark hair" she said triumphantly.

Hitomi rubbed the back of her head nervously, a habit she'd picked up from both her parents. "You don't marry Ranma. You and Mousse co-own the Neko Hanten together; Cologne gifted it to you after she remarried and you turn it into a chain of popular Ramen houses that even are in the states. You both become very rich and enjoy married life" she said.

"Wait you can't mean? Not that I believe you, but you say but Mousse and I get married to other people and you both his niece and mine to both our partners right?" Shampoo demanded.

"No, you and Mousse marry and have three children" she said. Ryoga's eyebrows shot up at this news. Shampoo had one look at how Mousse was smirking in an I'm-a-stud muffin sort of way, shrieked and fainted.

Ranma

Ranma, still in her hated female form, found herself wandering around looking for the crazy girl who looked like her, who might or might not be some distant relation to her...or possibly yet another fiancée. She didn't like that she felt concern for the delusional girl, but felt rather guilty for abandoning someone who might be an escaped mental patient. Speaking of mental patients: Ranma wondered if perhaps Hitomi had been hired by the Kunos' for some nefarious reason?

She checked everywhere that she could think of and became aware that her stomach was growling and cursed that Soun had made her leave the house before she even got to eat. She was a growing boy after all! She grinned when she realized she was in the vicinity of the Neko Hanten and decided to stop for a little free chow. Free Ramen was the best she'd ever tasted; besides the Amazons amused her when Akane wasn't around. Shampoo's predictably was almost comedic, Mousse's gruff behaviour whimsical and Cologne had the relaxed humour that age and wisdom brings. She stopped short at the strange tableau of martial arts' hardened butts pointing her way as her friends (and possible new fiancée) bent worriedly over Shampoo's unconscious form. She joined the string of upturned butts and added her own to the mix. "What happened?" she asked.

"This fortune telling girl, who looks like you, told Shampoo that we're going to marry in the future and it seemed to be a little too much for her to handle" Mousse explained, patting his ladylove's hand. "Hitomi, I would kiss you if I wasn't a taken man" he said beaming at Hitomi; his emerald green eyes were mirror bright behind his glasses. He didn't know if he believed her predictions, but was happy to hear them.

Ranma glared at the girl who was causing her so much trouble "she looks nothing like me" she cried, refusing to see the resemblance.

"That's not true, she has your female's half pretty face, gorgeous body and..." Ryoga protested and then slapped his hand over his mouth and blushed a beet red colour.

"You've been checking me out?" a stunned Ranma asked.

"I never would have pegged you as being into guys" Mousse mused.

"You take that back Mousse! I only like women!" Ryoga yelled, shaking his fist at him.

"Yes women like Ranma" Mousse said and then turned his attention back to the now conscious Shampoo. She opened her eyes and two identical women asked in practically the same voice if she was okay; that's when her brain decided to call it a day and she sank back into sweet oblivion.

"Look we should get you out of here" Ranma said dragging Hitomi after her and leaving Shampoo to Mousse's tender care.

"Where are we going?" Hitomi asked.

"You're staying with me until this gets straightened out, I can't have you running around causing trouble" she said and then turned to Ryoga. "You're coming too" she demanded.

"Why? What have I done?" he asked.

"I don't know why, but I feel that you're involved in this somehow" she replied, missing Hitomi's look of surprise. "Besides, I can't have you roaming the streets all night lost," she said taking his hand and dragging him along. Neither of them noticed how Hitomi's eyes misted over to be united at least temporarily with her both her mother and father, even if they were currently in their unfinished forms. Oddly enough Ryoga allowed Ranma to hold his hand as they walked through the streets of Nerima, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Cologne watched in surprise when Mousse came upstairs carrying an unconscious Shampoo and tenderly laid her on her futon. Cologne had taken a break to write her online boyfriend an email. "What happened?" she asked, jumping down.

"I had to close the restaurant as Shampoo fainted after meeting this girl who looked just like a brunette female Ranma. She claims to be his daughter from the future" Mousse explained.

"That was enough to make her faint?" she asked with concern in her voice.

"We both thought she was Ranma until the real one showed up. The girl insists that Shampoo and I are going to get married and have three kids. I think that was a little much for her to hear" Mousse said.

"Yes that would be enough to make any girl faint" Cologne said in a candid voice, earning a glare from Mousse. She covered up Shampoo and motioned Mousse outside. "Tell me more about the girl from the future" she demanded.

"Not much to tell, her name's Hitomi and she looks almost identical the female Ranma and says that both of her parents have black hair" he said with a shrug.

"I must meet this child for myself" Cologne said with a frown.

"I don't know, but it sure will be interesting to see if what she says turns out to be true" Mousse said.

"Well yes, who could be the father of a black haired child who looks like Ranma? After all, Ranma has two forms: her male form has black hair and her female red...and you have jet black hair yourself" she retorted, hopping away on her staff in the direction of the Tendo residence. She noted with satisfaction that Mousse suddenly looked deadly pale as if fighting of uncomfortable images.

Ranma

Ranma at thirty five easily looked ten years younger. Her years of martial arts had kept her body trim and betrayed no trace of the three pregnancies that she'd carried to term. The only thing that betrayed that she was a mother, was her children themselves. She'd been a beautiful girl who'd grown up to be a beautiful woman and her male side had equally as blossomed. She normally preferred to remain as a woman, if only to avoid confusion and had developed a special form of low impact martial arts that she'd designed for pregnant women. She was now a world famous martial artist, along with her husband. Her husband...she thought and struggled against a fresh wave of tears. Ryoga's had not only been her only been her first love, but best friend and...now he was gone. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but looking her at twin sons, Hideki and Hideo, who looked so much like him, made her sad. He'd been a good man, an excellent husband and wonderful father... and now he was gone.

She kept on looking for her only daughter and then noticed something poking out from underneath the sofa. She reached down to find an old bandana of Ryoga's, as if he'd left it there for her to find. She sank down on the seat, buried her face in it and inhaled; it was like he'd lost it there yesterday his scent was so powerful. Realizing that she was alone, (or so she thought) she let grief take her and sobbed into it. It wasn't until a cup of tea was placed before her and a small wizened hand touched her shoulder that she realized that Happosai was there. She regarded the large, kind eyes in his aged face and placed her hand over his. When she was younger, she'd thought him the worst kind of pervert and had barely tolerated him, that had soften into a mild respect when he'd been instrumental in bringing her marriage to Ryoga about and then genuine affection about how good he was with their children. Yes he was still a lingerie obsessed freak, but he was her lingerie obsessed freak and beloved Uncle Happi. Besides it made him easy to buy for come gift giving holidays.

"Are you okay Ranma?" he asked her gently.

"It's like I expect to turn a corner and to find him there. I can't believe that anything could defeat Ryoga, not even death" she admitted brokenly. "How's Hitomi taking it?" she asked, knowing how close they were.

"She's grieving just as badly as you and doesn't want to burden you with it. She's just as stubborn as her father was," Happosai said.

Ranma smiled at this, all of her children were a tad pigheaded and Hitomi was the worst of the lot. That she chose an aging perverted martial artist as her best friend was just part of her charm. Luckily Happosai didn't try to talk her into lingerie shows too much as he not only respected her, but she was like the daughter he'd never had. Also her fiancé would kill him. But Happosai was a creature of habit and could never resist asking pretty girls for lingerie shows, even if they were like family to him. Hitomi would just grin and tell him only if he gave her one first; he wasn't into that at all! "Where's Hitomi anyway? I've been looking for her" Ranma said.

The elderly sensei removed his hand from Ranma's shoulder and placed it to his chin, "Now that I think about it...," he stated, looking to the side in a thinking positio. "I don't think I've seen her for a bit, when I checked my room to see if she had been folding my collection and my cloths, she wasn't there."

Ranma found her eyebrow twitching with this knowledge about Hitomi folding and putting away Happosai's thing, yes, he was a kinder and not as annoying old freak. Though it still bothered Ranma to some degree that Hitomi would fold girl's stolen panties and work around sake bottles, which Happosai sometimes left half full. "I really wish she'd stop doing that for you...," Ranma commented, then shook her head once. "What about her brothers, do Hideki or Hideo know where she is?"

"I already asked them and they don't know either," Happosai replied, eyes widening.

"This isn't good..." Ranma groaned, fearing that she might have lost her daughter as well.

-line-

Please share your thoughts with us.


	3. Chapter 3

Sid: Wow, we got this out in less then month from the time we posted chapter 2, lol. Sorry don't ask me for lemons, there's no one she could have them with. Where it wouldn't be gross, it would be soooooo wrong. Well on to Daisuki the Fox God.

DaisukiFox: Well, I'm getting back in the writing game and everything seems good, I'm sorry we took so long with chapter 2 and hope you guys start reviewing more often, because the chapter's seem to be getting bigger in our little story. ^^

Let's do this thing Spider God Siddy!

We don't own Ranma, but rent him during the weekdays, he's cheaper during non-peak periods.

Ranma and Happosai searched the rest of the house and began to really worry. Hitomi was a responsible girl and not the sort to go off without telling anyone. As the youngest she still lived at home as the twins were attending university and so was their bother as he had skipped a grade. Then they starting calling her friends and eventually her brothers started to search the small, but lively district of Nerima. They visited all of their sister's favourite hangouts, until they returned home to their distraught mother. Ranma had turned back into his male form so that he wouldn't breakdown in front of his children...first Ryoga and now Hitomi. As a male martial artist, he felt honour bound not to weep, but he was crying inside. Ranma and Ryoga had always been proud of their bright and beautiful family.

Hideki and Hideo were identical twins right down to the mole on their right cheeks and favoured their father with their thick black hair unruly hair, warm boyish features, their sensitive treacle coloured eyes and powerful frames. They both were easy going nineteen-year-olds who were popular with the ladies (Ranma had no clue where they got that from), stubborn as mules and had their father's directional challenge and strength. Not that that prevented them to finding pretty girls along their way.

Juro at seventeen was the only redhead in the family, but he'd take more after his grandmother Nodoka. He was slimly elegant with long limbs and tapered fingers. He had developed a swimmer's build from strenuous martial arts training and his hair was a shock of auburn curls, which framed a sensitive and compelling face; like Ranma's male half. His temperament was calm and gracious, like his grandmother's until he got passionate about something, then the sparks flew. His eyes were slate blue. He was the academic of the family who was dating Ivy, Mousse's and Shampoo's sixteen year old daughter. Ivy herself had her father's hair colour with her mother's curls and lush body. Somehow she'd ended up with dark blue berry coloured eyes. She was a self described geek, good natured girl to whom good grades and popularity came easily. She may have been a Japanese citizen, but she was Amazon through and through with all the training her parents had given her.

Hitomi was Ranma's youngest child and perhaps the most gifted martial artist of the bunch. Ranma hadn't known what to do with a girl child and had tried to turn her into the proper little princess that she thought she should be. This went on until Happosia asked her to come into Hitomi's room one day; Hitomi had cornered Hideki trying to steal her teddy bear and was beating him with it. One look at the battle aura surrounding the not even one-year-old-girl and Happosai had taken the bear from her and suggested to Ranma that she start training the budding martial artist right way. Hitomi was a tomboy, but she was also sweet and loving and perhaps, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone...Ranma's favourite. She could do any type of martial arts and had had an endless sort of choose from with her various uncles and aunts instructing her in their own style. She could wield a bokken with the best of them or giant spatula, throw a parasol or bandana, do Amazon Chinese martial arts and knew how to draw weapons from nowhere and that was only to start with.

Ranma and Ryoga had been very careful to instill in each of their offspring the importance of a good education as well as martial arts. After all, they both had been rather deprived in that area from Ranma's being dragged about by her father and Ryoga getting lost all the time. It had paid off because all of them excelled in school as well as in martial arts.

Ivy immediately went and hugged her uncle/aunt Ranma, he liked the girl and he was glad that he had had the talk with Juro, pointing out that Ivy wasn't actually related to him, so it was fine for them to date. "Are you sure I shouldn't call my parents? Mom and dad would love to help" she assured him softly, her voice was sweet and gentle as that was her nature.

Ranma squeezed her arms lightly "your parents are busy people, I would just like to keep this in the family for now before we go worrying other people" he assured her.

"Where do you think that she might have gone?" Juro asked.

Happosai took a pull off his pipe "I was the last person to see her as far as I know. She came to my room and asked if I had any chores for her to do, so I asked her to catalogue my collection and dust" he replied. The almost comical nature of his collection didn't manage to take away the gravity of the situation. A young girl was missing.

"Mom, I'm sure she'll be fine" Hideki said.

"It's true, she's a skilled martial artist" Hideo echoed.

"Yes but it's not like her to go somewhere without telling someone. It's like she just vanished' Ranma said in concern.

"She's always been impulsive, she'll probably turn up in an hour looking all shamefaced and apologizing. She's sixteen after all" Ivy offered.

Ranma frowned at the other female martial artist "I was never like that at sixteen. You're not like that at sixteen and neither were her bothers. Something happened to her" he said.

"Well to be fair, you were mainly in boy's form back then according to you and you would go on training trips by yourself all the time," Hideki said to soothe his mother/father.

"Yes and that seems like a crazy young age to be granted so much freedom now" Ranma said imagining his beautiful daughter lying dead in the ditch or worse. Then something shifted in his brain as new memories were implanted. "I knew a girl named Hitomi when I was sixteen" she mused out loud.

Everyone else looked at her, wondering as to the relevance of her statement.

"So did I," Happosai echoed as his own memories shifted to include her.

Ranma looked at him sharply "you don't think?" she hesitantly asked.

"No it's impossible, the mirror was broken" he echoed her.

"Dad, Uncle Happi what are you talking about?" Juro asked confused.

"When I was about Hitomi's age; Happosai, Ivy's mother Shampoo, Aunt Akane, Cologne and myself time travelled back to ancient China by use of a magic mirror and met the young Cologne there," Ranma said.

"A magic mirror?" Hideki said skeptically.

"It's true, my mother told me about it. There are several such magical objects in China ," Ivy confirmed.

"Happosai, did you keep the mirror after it broke?" Ranma asked him sharply.

"Yes because it has sentimental value to me, I gathered every shard and put it in my chest" he replied, shuffling his feet awkwardly and Ranma was slightly amused that he seemed to be blushing.

"Could you check if its still there?" she asked him and he hurried away to honour her request.

"Dad, time travel isn't possible. Are you sure great-aunt Cologne didn't feed you one of her wacky mushrooms that caused you to hallucinate the whole thing?" Hideo asked his mother cautiously.

"Time travel is possible, I was there and met the young Happosai and Cologne ," she said firmly. She turned when Happosai rejoined her "well?" she asked him.

"It's gone and it looks like she was using her special mirrored glue at her desk, she left it open and a couple of used tissues there. That's not like her at all" he said urgently.

"Oh my gods, she's in Nerima as it was twenty years ago" Ranma said with panic in her voice.

"That means she's going to meet your ex-fiancées and former enemies...and Kuno at the height of their adolescent bitchiness" Happosai concluded.

"All of whom she knows to be her uncles and aunts" Ranma moaned.

Ranma's children could only look from one to the other, "so they would have been younger then? They can't really have been that bad; they all grew up to be upstanding citizens after all" Juro said.

"No they were much worse than you could possibly imagine" Ranma said with a groan. Then her eyes widened as new memories washed over her. "She's meeting Dad, Uncle Soun and the rest of the Tendos'" she said in alarm

"This should be interesting," Happosai said with a twinkle in his eyes and sat down comfortably to watch the play of new memories in his head.

**Tendo Dojo**

The three had arrived while still being lead in the same fashion as before, Hitomi had a pleasant smile across her face. There had been moments where they walk like this, granted those moments were when Hitomi was younger, but she still like the time she spent with both of them; even if her mom viewed her as an insane person and her father possibly thought the same thing. This didn't surprise her, she knew her explanation was a little over the top, so it was understandable.

"So, what's this all about Saotome?" Ryoga asked, releasing Ranma's hand and looking towards Akane's house.

"Hey, it's not like I wanted to bring you two here," Ranma said, and then turned her head to see a timid looking Hitomi. "Uh... but Soun Tendo wanted me to bring you here so we could talk to you, and I'd like to ask you some questions too," Ranma stated, noticing that her little statement caused Hitomi to smile.

"That's nice an all, but I don't think I should stay..." Ryoga commented, crossing his arms. He didn't want to be reminded of Hitomi's parentage and how happy they'd be in the future, while Ryoga was possibly like some favored uncle to the family. It was a little too much for him to take at this time of his life. He knew why things had to take time, because some people were fragile and needed more time to adjust to annoying possible truths. At least that's what most of his mind could take in, right now he still didn't believe her, but he was also scared of the possibility that she was right. This was one of the many things Ryoga didn't like to traffic in, possibilities that lead him to being eternally lonely.

"Look!" Ranma exclaimed, moving over and grabbing Ryoga by the shoulder. "I need ya' to be here because this has something to do with you too, I don't know what, but it's gotta' have something to do with you. Why does she cling to you like that? How does she even know us?"

Ryoga glared at Ranma, hating the idea of Ranma being able to tell him what to do. "You're crazy Saotome!" Ryoga shouted. "She's part of some crazy scheme you made to keep me away from Akane, but she told me the truth!"

The redheaded girl raised an eyebrow and turned to the girl, then turned back to Ryoga. "What scheme? I don't even know her!" she shouted at him

Ryoga shook his head and pushed Ranma's hand away with the back of his. "Why the hell I even let you drag me this far is beyond me," Ryoga commented.

"Fine..." Ranma said, rolling her eyes. "We don't need yo-" she got as far as saying before Hitomi went over to Ryoga and curled her arms around one of his; causing the lost boy to blush and restrain himself from losing more blood from his nose.

"I'm not staying if he can't!" Hitomi stubbornly said.

Ranma blinked a few times, "Come on, you don't need him here, let'em sulk!"

"I told you no!" Hitomi shouted, turning to Ranma and offering her a mirror image of Ranma's glare; a fierce look that was relatable to the pigtailed girl. This girl's face resembled Ranma's that much she could tell she was related to her. How she had been acting up until this point made it hard for Ranma to believe that Hitomi was her daughter, that was until she got a look of determination in her eyes and the battle aura that was emitting from her person matched Ranma's when she was in a rage.

"Argh!" Ranma groaned, looking away for a moment to compose herself. That's when she knew that she'd have to convince Ryoga to come inside with them, but the question was, how? "Look Ryoga..."

The lost boy shook his head and turned to black haired future child, "Look... Hitomi, I just don't think I should be here, and there's nothing Saotome can do to make me-"

"But-" Hitomi tried to say.

"I said noth-" Ryoga was about to finish until.

"Ryoga!" Akane shouted, opening the front gate of the Tendo dojo.

"A-Akane!" Ryoga blushed and stared at the blue haired Tendo.

Hitomi and Ranma both found themselves rolling their eyes at this, sometimes Ryoga could be so easily tempted. Ranma knew from experience gullible Ryoga was and Hitomi learned from watching the future Ranma tempt Ryoga with anything suggestive.

**Dining Room**

Once they had all seated and some explaining had been done. The others were gathered around Soun as he sat across the table from Hitomi. He had a stern look on his face as he saw that Hitomi did appear to look like Ranma but saw nothing of Akane in her features. He thought that maybe Ranma had much more dominant genes than Akane, which to him seemed fairly reasonable. Hitomi was sitting there blinking her eyes and waiting for Soun to say something, she knew was that she was being studied to see if she had in fact been telling the truth about her parents. Finally some of the tension in the room shifted as Soun Tendo smiled kindly.

"I most definitely see the resemblance between my little girl and Ranma!" Soun declared, nodding his head while tears streamed from his eyes.

Genma smiled as well, as he was nearly as delusional as his dear old friend Soun. Ranma and Ryoga turned to Soun, both confused. The girl looked like Ranma, but to them she was looked different somehow. She didn't really look anything like Akane. How come Soun couldn't see that? Did he really believe in the two schools uniting that much?

"I don't see the Akane side to this girl," Nabiki said, leaning over and whispering into Kasumi's ear. The Tendo girls all had different body structures and in Akane's case, hair colour, but they had in common their large brown eyes and smiles that could make a man melt. To Nabiki this girl no more resembled them then Nabiki did the Queen of England. She couldn't see dollar signs whenever she looked at the girl; she wondered if she could pass her off as Ranma's dark hair twin sister. She'd make a mint off Kuno for photos of them together.

"Uh... neither do I," Kasumi whispered back.

Now that Akane had gotten a much better view of Hitomi, she found herself searching for any sign that this girl was her daughter. Though the more she looked, the less she saw _'shouldn't she at least look a little like me?' _Akane thought, though that hadn't kept her from convincing herself that this girl was her daughter, even if there wasn't many signs of it.

Hitomi hadn't said anything; at this point she knew that messing with the timeline and this could be dangerous to her current present. She sat and watched as Soun stood up and moved over to the Hibiki child (Hitomi). From there he leaned down and embraced Hitomi in a death hug, tears flowing from his eyes, even more than before.

Hitomi awkwardly placed her hand on Soun's back, unsure of what to say at a moment like this.

"Hitomi Saotome I know you've probably already been introduced to the family before, but welcome to the family once again! You're truly the symbol of beauty which'll untie our glorious schools together in the best and brightest of futures!" Soun said, officially letting her into the family without even being sure that she was Ranma's and Akane's child. "What do you say to spending sometime with your mother and father?"

"I'd love that!" Hitomi replied.

"Akane! Ranma!" Soun called, moving away and hoping that the two would come together to spend time with their daughter to show them how nice their domestic life could be.

"Eh..." Hitomi groaned, glancing to the side. She had to keep reminding herself that everyone thought that she was Ranma's and Akane's, instead of Ranma's and Ryoga's child.

Hitomi had to make sure that Ryoga would come along with them, "But I want Ryoga to come with us, it'd be nice!" she recommended.

Soun Tendo didn't have to worry about Ryoga anymore, since Hitomi was living proof that Ryoga would never get together with Akane. How right he'd been about Akane and Ranma getting together.

Ranma and Akane were bothered about the concept of a daughter right now, since they hadn't even finished school, hopefully her little visit to the past wasn't going to become permanent. It would have gone much better with Hitomi if Ryoga hadn't look so shell shocked, she could tell that Ryoga was depressed about the idea of Akane being taken by Ranma.

"Fine, I suppose Ryoga must be a close friend of your family during your time and I doubt you get to see him very often seeing how he always seems to disappear," Soun stated, smiling and crossing his arms.

"Tendo... say, what's say we celebrate with some sake?" Genma suggested.

"Of course, my old friend."

**Future**

The future Ranma watched her memories play on and watched as Soun was trying to push Hitomi into spending time with Ranma and Akane. She couldn't very well do anything about it since she was in her current time, but the memories of Ryoga brought a nostalgic feeling, but with that feeling came an uncomfortable twisting in her stomach. The wounds of her lose were her still fresh on her, even after sometime had gone by. She figured right now that she needed talk to someone who knew about mystical magical objects.

"We now know what's happening, but we need to do something to get her back here..." Ranma stated, turning to Happosai. "Are you seeing anything, yet?"

"No, I don't think I'm around yet," Happosai replied.

"I've got a suggestion mom," Juro said.

"What would that be?" Hideo asked, turning to his brother.

Juro brought his attention to his Uncle Happi, "Well, who else has more understanding of magical objects than grandpa Happosai?" Juro asked.

"Great-great-grandmother!" Ivy exclaimed, holding her arms to her sides, she pumped them with enthusiasm.

"Exactly," Juro confirmed.

"Yeah, but there's a problem... the old ghoul is all the way in America living as a nudist..." Ranma stated, causing everyone to groan. There was a reason they didn't like calling her for anything, they hoped that at least the video conferencing on Cologne's picture phone would be off. Ranma ordered all of her children to close their eyes to spare them the sight of an even older, naked Cologne. She hoped and preyed that the phone would be off...only to have Cologne herself answer it in all her glory. Ranma tried politely not to gag as she hopped up onto the stool she had set beside the phone and sat down "Ranma it's so good to see you" she said, causally crossing her legs. Ranma fought the urge to vomit what time could do to a body.

"Hi Cologne , good to see you too...but could we see a little less of you?" she asked tactfully.

"Oh sorry, I don't even think about clothes anymore. I'll change" she said and got off the stool.

"It's okay to look now" Ranma whispered to her cowering offspring; expect Ivy who was waving hello to her beloved great-great-grandmother without a care in the world. Her sons looked up with polite smiles on their faces in greetings of their eccentric relative with her strange life style choice and equally as unusual presents.

"I changed" the suddenly young Cologne announced, she was now the firm, hot young brunette she'd been in China when Ranma had accidently visited her. Ranma sighed and without even looking, withdrew a packet of tissues and handed them out to her nose bleeding sons. Ranma now questioned her choice of getting a bottle of water from the Jusenkyo spring of the drowned young girl for Cologne's wedding present.

"Don't you ever get tired of that trick?" she asked her.

"No and since Phil got bottle of water from the spring of the drowned young man, I don't either" she said as her green eyes twinkling with good humour.

Aware of the goggled eyes of her sons appreciating the sudden vision of feminine beauty on their monitor; Ranma said through clenched teeth "Cologne for one last time, put-some-clothes-on"

"You're such a spoilsport" Cologne said with a sexy pout and went to actually dress this time, but not without giving one last sexy wave of her curvy hips, causing three noses to erupt again.

"I swear you all take after your father" Ranma snarled as they brought out the packet of tissues she carried at all times for times like these.

"Is great-great-grandmother prettier then me?" Ivy asked as she wiped her beloved nose.

"Not even close" Juro assure her.

"Okay what can I do for you?" Cologne asked, having resumed her usual form and a sack like dress, suddenly all business.

Ranma stared into the wise old eyes of the former leader of the Amazon's. She'd resigned her leadership before retiring to Florida with her new love, but that didn't make her an ounce less of the wise woman Ranma had known. Cologne had met her children only from a distance but loved them as if they were her own grandchildren. She'd gone from being a pain in the butt to a true friend that Ranma trusted implicitly. "Hitomi is missing and so is the mirror" she said putting an emphasis on mirror.

Cologne frowned "not the mirror, it can't be. That was destroyed. You can't even replace the glass and use it, it has to be the original spelled glass to work" she explained.

"Happosai saved the pieces and we believe that Hitomi fixed it and accidently found out its magical properties" Ranma explained.

"How do you know this Ranma?" Cologne asked with a frown.

"I'm getting new memories of her...from when I was sixteen" Ranma said, letting each word sink in. "She's at the dojo right now" she explained.

Cologne suddenly cocked her head as if listening to someone and sighed. "I fear you're right. I'm there to"

**Dining Room**

The Tendos were just about to leave Ranma, Akane and Hitomi...and Ryoga alone to get to know Hitomi when Cologne hopped through their window to land on their table as if she was made of the air itself. She wasted no time and stripped searched Hitomi's face as if she could see into her very soul. "You must be the child who claims to be from the future. I will admit that the resemblance to my future son-in-law is uncanny" she observed.

"Great-great-grandmother Cologne, it's so good to see you looking so well...and not naked" Hitomi enthused.

Cologne narrowed her eyes at the girl, how did she know that her online boyfriend was a nudist? "I have never met you before, yet you seem to know me" she said.

"I know you all" Hitomi explained. "In this time you are all friends and enemies to some degree or other, yet in my time you all become wonderful friends. You remarry and leave the Nekohanten to the newlywed Mousse and Shampoo. Wait, I guess I shouldn't talk about it, it might ruin my present" she said clapping her hands to her mouth.

"Yes Mousse was spouting some drivel about his marriage to my Shampoo...until I gave him an alternate suggestion" Cologne said with her mouth twitching with good humour. Her gaze narrowed and she said "if you are truly from the future you must have some means of transportation to now, I need to see proof of this"

Hitomi had just managed to stuff the mirror inside her pocket before Ryoga had almost hit her "I found this broken mirror amongst Uncle Happosai's things and thought it was beautiful, so I decided to restore it as a present for him using this mirrored glue I invented. The glue caused my eyes to water and a tear fell onto the glass just as I was staring at my parent's wedding photo and I wished that I could have known them when they were about my age" she lied, not wanting to admit that her grief was over Ryoga's death when he was standing right there in front of her.

"My mirror" Cologne said in surprise and Ranma and Akane's eyes widened in recognition to see it again.

**The Future**

"She is there, Ranma you have to do something to bring her back. She could mess up the timeline irrevocably and screw up the future" Cologne said urgently.

"Such as?" Ranma asked suspiciously.

"I kinda suggested to Mousse that you get together and that he's actually Hitomi's father" Cologne said sheepishly.

"Why would you have done that?" Ranma demanded.

"I was just messing with the boy. I'm sure that would never happen" Cologne replied.

"Damn right. Now do you have another mirror we can use to go get Hitomi?" Ranma asked. "I can't have Hitomi running amok in the nineties in Nerima, no telling what could be changed...and Kuno's jerky self is there with her"

"I don't have another, the one I had was an ancient family heirloom that was created by powerful magic for an ancestress of mine when she lost the love of her life on the day they were supposed to marry. A kind wise woman created for her a mirror that would allow her to see into the past and watch him, not known that a single agonized tear could breach the timelines. So one day when my ancestress was watching him, she started crying and was suddenly with him a few days before their wedding. She convinced him not to go boar hunting that day, before returning to a happier future for them and they went on to have five children" she explained.

"So you can alter the past for the better?" Ranma asked, pondering deeply about the implications of this.

"It's subjective, one false move and you could wind up being married to Mousse" Cologne said. "There's a spell I know that will allow you to communicate with her through your own sixteen-year-old body as the past Ranma sleeps. The spell only allows you to communicate with a direct relative of yours. I can explain how to do the spell and Ivy can perform it for you, but you must decide now if you want to do this" she intoned.

"Yes, I need to speak with her if nothing else" Ranma said urgently.

"Very well, Ivy my dear, you will have to go home and fetch from Shampoo the following objects..." Cologne began.

**Present time**

Hitomi hadn't been able to sleep very well today, she hadn't gotten much time to hang with Ryoga since he seemed very timid and his attention always elsewhere. Akane kept trying to ask questions to her that she wasn't sure she could answer, doing her best to avoid the question about Ranma and Akane being her parents. It was difficult to lie to them since in her time she was told only to lie to enemies, but these weren't enemies. These were her parents and her aunt Akane.

Through it all she tried her best just to try and have fun and saw that Akane had been trying to get closer to Ranma, which she'd always interrupt by doing something to catch their attention and bring them back to acknowledging Ryoga's presence. Hitomi could tell that it was hurting her father to see that Akane was trying to be motherly towards her with the idea of Ranma being her father. Every interaction she would have with Ranma was usually very limited. All she told them a few of her likes and dislikes and what she could do to repair things. The one thing that really set her off with lying was that she told them that she was accidently sent her without having the time traveling mirror on her person. So, she promised that once she found the mirror in this timeline, she'd be on her merry way. Though they all knew that the mirror was currently in Happosai's possession and he wasn't around to give it to them.

The information that she gave them was passed onto Soun, who didn't seem all that bothered by it. As long as she was around, her existence would prove to Akane and Ranma that they'd eventually unite the schools. He was in no rush to have her leave.

Now that everyone had gone to sleep, the black haired Hibiki daughter climbed up a ladder to the roof; where her father was currently resting with all of his clothes still on. He'd insisted that he sleep on the roof, Soun wasn't one to complain and Akane thought that maybe Ryoga had his reasons.

She knew that she could sit near him without his waking up, but she really wished she could be closer to him, if only to comfort him while he was sad during the entire time that Ranma and Akane had been together around him. _'I'm sorry dad..."_ she thought, bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them tightly. This was all too confusing for her; she wasn't sure what she could do in this timeline to help Ryoga and Ranma get together, or some way of preventing them from taking the trip that took Ryoga's life away.

She felt tears stream down her cheeks as she gritted her teeth in frustration at how she felt now. Wasn't there anything she could do? She didn't know how to use the mirror exactly, so she had been betting on only slightly changing the future so that her father could still be around in her time. But would that really be the best choice? Could she maybe end her own existence with this? What about her brothers? What about Happosai? She held a strong will as long as she could, but the gravity of the situation was weighing down heavily on her.

**Future**

Ivy and Juro had both traveled to Shampoo's and Mousse's home and asked for a few items. Though it was really a run in and grab what we need and explain later kinda' moment, but before they left, Ivy told them it was a matter of life and death, so therefore an explanation would be needed for another time. Juro and Ivy both entered the room with the objects needed, and a small knife to help Ranma with that part of the spell that was certainly going to be a bit painful.

"Is that everything we're gonna' need?" Ranma asked, turning to Cologne on the screen.

"Yes, this will all be necessary..." Cologne added.

"What's with the mushroom?" Hideo asked, pointing to the mushroom on top of Ivy's head.

"I'm getting kinda' hungry..." Ivy replied.

"We really should get back to the task at hand..." Happosai said, eyeing the younger Cologne once more; she preened at this.

"Set everything up Ivy," Cologne said, the dark haired Amazon took out the chi stones and started placing them in a circle. She took a few leaves from inside a plastic bag in Juro's hand and also started scattering them around the chi stones. She grabbed the incense candles and lined them up as best as she could, but Juro decided to help and prepared the incense candles along with her.

"Everything is ready..." Cologne stated, and then turned to Ivy. "Ivy... demonstrate the position needed for this, first Ranma, you will sit down in a meditative position," she said, as Ivy stood near the circle she had created and sat down with her legs crossed. "Then you'll prick the ends of your finger and chant this Mandarin phrase until your mind has ascended to a different time plane," With that Ivy took out the knife she had been keeping in her pocket and pretended to cut the tips of her fingers very lightly, to indicate that it was a light pricking.

Cologne started to chant the words that Ranma needed to remember, once repeating it in her head enough times. The redheaded mother opened her eyes and went over to the circle that Ivy had prepared, once she stepped foot in it, she closed her eyes and sat down crossed legged. She stuck out her hand to Ivy, the dark haired girl handed her the small knife and Ranma easily pierced the tips of her fingers without so much as wincing. From there, Ranma touched her tips of all her fingers together.

"The blood allows the connection to her body and her mind, this allows the control over her mind," Happosai added, staring at Cologne.

The Amazon simply nodded her head, confirming his thoughts.

They heard Ranma chant the Mandarin phrase and continued to repeat it over and over again, nothing much seemed to be happening. That was until the chi stones flared to life in a blue colored light and the leaves rose up high and started to drift around Ranma; which was odd since there was no wind in the building. Now what really caught everyone's attention was the glowing visible aura that ignited from Ranma's hands and the white mist that suddenly surrounded Ranma's head.

"She did it..." Cologne said.

**Ranma**

The pigtailed boy had changed back into his guy form when he took a shower and was now peacefully sleeping, completely unconscious to the world. That was until Ranma took a sharp intake of air and his eyes shot open. They had changed into his female side's vivid blue eyes. Ranma sat up from his futon and turned his head in the direction where he could sense Hitomi, which was of course an odd sensation, but Ranma figured it had something to do with the blood spell. He had one thing to do before he could go and talk to Hitomi; so Ranma headed towards the rest room, though she felt that she'd feel skimpily dressed running around as a girl in nothing but boxers and a muscle shirt.

**Hitomi**

Hitomi had finally calmed down enough to stop her tears and wiped them away. All she could do now was try and fall asleep in the same room as Akane (which she'd cleverly walked out of) and try to find some way of her parents getting closer together. From the ladder rose Ranma, this caught Hitomi off guard. "R-Ranma?" Hitomi gasped, lightly enough to not wake Ryoga.

The redheaded girl gave a sign that she wanted to talk to her, which Hitomi agreed to and followed her down the ladder. "What's this about, Ranma?" She asked, stepping off the ladder and standing before the pigtailed girl.

"Hitomi, it's me, your mother," Ranma stated, crossing her arms.

"Wha?' Hitomi blinked, Hitomi didn't know if she was actually her mother.

"We need you to come back to us, you shouldn't be meddling in the past; it's not safe. Please use the mirror to come back," Ranma said, glaring at her. This was one of the times where she'd have to get serious and try to intimidate her own child, at least long enough for her to convince her.

"B-But I can't!" Hitomi said, keeping her voice low.

"Don't argue with me, you have to come back!" Ranma demanded, stepping forward and looking as though she was challenging her.

The look of horror on Hitomi's face caused Ranma to sigh and relax.

"Look... I miss your dad just as much as you do," Ranma confessed, which wasn't a surprise. "Still I can't help seeing him out of the corner of my eye, smiling with his cute little fangs poking out, but have you thought of what you could end up doing if you ruin this timeline?"

"Y-yes... but I'm working on a way to save all of us and still have the future, I know I can figure it out mom!" She exclaimed, raising her voice ever so slightly.

"Don't be stupid Hitomi, the past is the past!" Ranma shot back.

"To them we're the future mom..." Hitomi said, then raised her head up and stared at her. "Don't ask me to leave yet mom... please. I want the dead to stay alive for our time. When I saw him on the roof before you came, I cried because I knew that when I leave I'll never see him again," she paused to wipe a tear away from her eyes. "S-so, I'm staying until I can think of someway to bring you two together and save you from being lonely!"

Ranma stepped back; she could see the reasoning behind her words. Though when Hitomi mentioned Ryoga being on the roof, she turned her head to look up at it and then back to Hitomi. She knew that she was going to regret this, but with how Hitomi was meddling in the past, that their future would only soon come crumbling down. "Just go inside Hitomi..." she ordered her.

The black haired girl stared at Ranma before reluctantly walking back inside the Tendo home. Ranma gulped before walking over to the ladder and using it to ascend to the roof, once there, she was greeted with the younger version of Ryoga. The way he slept really caught her breath, even at this time he was as sexy as ever to her.

"Ryoga..." Ranma said, stepping ever closer to him. Being quiet enough for Ryoga not to hear and sense her, she reached him and kneeled down to stare into his face. The peaceful image was beautiful, to see the man she had fallen for alive and breathing, the man who had given her children, the man that had taken her heart, even when she herself was a man was irresistible!

Closing her eyes, she leaned down and pressed her lips to the lost boy's, taking in the feeling of his lips on hers, his scent and the feel of her hand as she placed it on his chest. Now she had gone too far and couldn't stop herself from enjoying this moment. She had longed for this feeling again; the feeling that her heart might explode from the affection that it contained.

Something caught her attention as she felt a hand rise up and place it's self on her back, pulling her in closer. Instinctively Ranma moved over so that she was above him and kissing him as passionately as she could, then went up another notch and slipped her tongue in his mouth, which the sleeping Ryoga eagerly returned. Now Ranma was comfortable enough to lean down and press her body to his, her perfect breasts rubbing up against his solid chest triggered a more primal side of Ryoga's personality. One that was seeking lust and that lust was displayed by Ryoga reaching out with both of his hands and clasping Ranma's firm bottom.

Ranma gasped as the she felt Ryoga touch her there again, even in her time she'd noticed that Ryoga indeed liked grabbing her there.

"Mm... A-Akane..." Ryoga groaned, from under the kiss.

That shocked the future Ranma enough to make her lose her control and shoot back to her time.

Slowly, Ranma and Ryoga opened their eyes and stared at each other as their lips were technically locked together and Ryoga's hands were firmly placed on Ranma's rear.

"Ah!" Both screamed, enough to wake everyone in the house.

**Meanwhile Mousse**

Mousse's mouth watered to study the female in front of him; she had a perfectly toned body that was both strong, yet curvy and feminine. Her gravity defying breasts were supported by a bra of the finest lace that proved that they didn't need one at all. His eyes travelled greedily downwards over her firm, flat stomach and he swore her belly button winked at him. The thong she wore just covered the sweet nest of curls at the apex of her sex and drew attention to the exposed flare of her hips. Yet he could have sworn he could see a few flame-bright hairs peeking around the edge of the thong to entice him (but Shampoo's were purple he thought). The sheer lace topped stockings hugged her long shapely legs like a promise. As if to tease him, she turned so that she was in profile so that he could admire the perfect curve of her derrière. She rotated slightly so that one full cheek was exposed while the barest whisper of lace divided them. He frowned when he noticed that she seemed to have a birthmark high on her right butt cheek and leaned closer. He'd known Shampoo since their innocent days of skinny dipping together, before age and modesty had robbed them of this simple pleasure. He could have sworn that she never had a birthmark...shaped like a rabbit.

He looked up into her face and gasped when Ranma leered back at him while she played with her pigtail suggestively, "Come on big boy, let's make a baby together" she purred.

Mousse sat up with a gasp and then silently cursed Cologne for implying that Hitomi was his and Ranma's daughter. Since then he'd been having these sex dreams about Ranma...and he didn't like her in either form. He knew that there was no way that he was destined to be with Ranma just because he had the same colour hair as her future mate. Black was not uncommon for an Asian country, there were tons of guys...and girls around with hair just like his. Take Ryoga for instance, his was just as dark, if only shorter...not that he could ever seen those two getting together. They'd kill each other.


	4. Chapter 4

Siddy: Here is a loooooooong chapter from me and the Foxy Man. We got really silly in this chapter and hope you will enjoy our good humour. Read and enjoy.

Over to you foxy.

DaisukiFox: Yeah, we took an insane amount of time since I was really busy with getting a PS3 for Christmas! Siddy thinks too much gaming is bad! Hope you like it as much as we did writing it!

Disclaimer: We don't own Ranma but swear he tastes delicious with the right spices!

-Line-

"Ranma what the hell are you doing?" Ryoga shouted after both people had turned their heads to the side to try and spit out the taste of the other from their mouths.

"Get-your-hands-off-my-butt!" Ranma shouted back.

Ryoga snatched his hands away from her curvy rear like it had suddenly burned him. He turned scarlet to realize that he'd been groping _Ranma. _"What the hell, you kissed me you pervert!" he cried.

"I didn't kiss you; you're the pervert, pervert. My gods you had your hands all over me!" she spat back.

"Ranma I didn't kiss you, I was asleep when you sexually attacked me. What were you sleep walking or something? I'm not Akane," Ryoga cried shaking his fist at her. It felt good to shout, it drew attention away from the fact that he was feeling...amorous, about Ranma.

Ranma blushed when he used the words 'sexually attacked.' "I was doing no such thing, the last thing I remember I was innocently sleeping on my futon," she said hotly, crossing her arms over her erect nipples to hide them; it wasn't a cool night. This caused her to freeze with the realization that she was female. "How the hell did I get to be female, did you turn me into a girl so that you could take advantage of me?"

"I wouldn't ever take advantage of a girl, not even a fake girl like you!" Ryoga spat out with a gasp of outrage. "Ranma I was asleep on the roof minding my own business. Perhaps you would care to explain how you got up here and happened to be crawling all over me?" he demanded.

Ranma opened her mouth and then shut it when she realized that she had no idea what she was doing on the roof.

"Ranma is it true? Did you kiss Ryoga?" a voice asked.

Both of them snapped their heads around so fast that they almost broke their necks and with horror saw entire Tendo household crowded comically at the top of the ladder.

"Well is it true Ranma?" Akane asked.

"And did you grab my son's rear?" Genma demanded.

Ryoga hastily waved his arms around in front of him in denial "N-no, Ranma was sleep walking and she tripped and fell onto me. I thought I was being sexually assaulted and accidentally touched her rear when trying to help her up. Right Ranma? There's nothing perverted going on here!" he said putting and arm around her and giving her back flesh a painful pinch that caused her to yelp.

"He's right, that's what happened. Silly me, sleep walking again, hee hee..." she said giving them a too wide grin and nervous laugh.

"You sleep walked onto the roof?" Nabiki said skeptically.

"I'm a martial artist, we can practically fly don't you know. Wow, I'm tired; we should all go back to bed. Sorry about waking everyone up!" Ranma said flapping her wrists in a shooing motion, indicating that they should go back down the ladder.

"I don't recall Ranma ever sleep walking before..." Kasumi said to no one in particular as she walked back into the house.

"Me neither," Nabiki said looking pointedly at Ranma as she descended the ladder, this caused her to blush. No one knew that Hitomi was rolling on the floor in silent laughter below them; she knew exactly what had happened. Her mother could never resist her father.

Ranma looked at Ryoga and said pointedly "Goodnight Ryoga, its best we forget this."

"I agree" he said and thumped his pillow and laid down again, yet the ghost of her kiss remained on his lips. He touched them, his first kiss...it had been so passionate. He'd felt so cared about. Then he frowned when he remembered that it was from Ranma. His hands curled as if he were cradling the perfect peach of her bottom again, it had been so warm and firm and it felt...nice. Ryoga blanched when he realized how he'd responded to Ranma's girl side.

Hitomi

"I don't see why I have to go to school with you. This uniform is so gay, I look like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz" Hitomi growled tugging at the puffed sleeve. She felt like a knob in Akane's spare uniform. "Plus it's baggy in the waist and tight at the chest!" she complained.

Akane narrowed her eyes at her "You're Ranma's daughterm all right," she commented in an anger filled voice.

"What do you mean by that? I didn't mean it as an insult, I just meant that we're built differently!" she said, not understanding Akane's anger. "I could just stay home and help Kasumi..." she offered. Kasumi, in her time have become a nurse and ran her husband's clinic with lightening efficiency and was the busy mother of two teenage boys.

"No I think that you should stay with us until we get everything sorted out. Now you'll have to register with Principal Kuno, I don't know what he's like in your time, but now he's a little...odd," Akane said hesitantly.

"What nice Great-Uncle Kuno, he's a sweet old man who retired from teaching and lives in Hawaii . He still wins awards for his surfing. He's just a harmless eccentric now, right?" Hitomi asked.

"Something like that..." Akane muttered. "Hope you like bowl cuts."

Hitomi was aware of everyone staring at her and whispering when she entered the school with Akane, Ranma...and Ryoga in tow. They'd insisted that he come along too, even over his protests.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" she asked Akane.

"You look like Ranma's girl side, only with dark hair, yet Ranma's male side is here so they're confused. Allow me, hey everyone I would like you to meet Ranma's cousin, Hitomi!" she called out to the student population at large.

"Nice to meet you, we can always use another hot girl here," bit-part male student number one, who shall remain nameless, enthused.

"Wow the resemblance is uncanny..." number two said with a slight leer.

"Nice to meet you, yes I'm Ranma's...cousin," Hitomi said nervously at their attention.

"Wow it's like having a Ranma we can actually date," number three said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma demanded, shaking his fist at three.

"Nothing..." number three said nervously.

Ryoga not liking how they were looking at Hitomi grabbed the nearest one and said "You will apologize to the lady. She's under my protection."

Akane and Ranma could only stare at how protective Ryoga was being about the unknown girl. They'd only ever seen him act that way about Akane herself. "Come on Ryoga, we have to get both of you registered," she said to stop him from glowering at the shrinking student.

"Okay Akane," Ryoga said and trotted along docilely after her. Hitomi could only roll her eyes, unaware that Ranma was doing the same.

**Da Principal Kuno Mon's Office **

The brisk walk to principal Kuno's office was filled with a few boys staring at Hitomi, which only served to enrage Ryoga at every turn. Though he managed to walk through it without too much struggle and blood lust, when they reached the door to principal Kuno's office, they stopped for a moment.

"Remember... don't let him try and cut your hair, he has terrible style," Akane stated.

"If you ask me this whack job gets some sort of sick kick from making people look stupid," Ranma commented.

Hitomi and Ryoga felt that this wasn't going to be a simple chat, someone like this must have been persistent with what they wanted, Hitomi knew this from experience with her future uncle Kuno and he did love to press points, but it was usually in a playful manner. Once they reached the door to principal Kuno's office, they stopped and saw that the door was slowly being opened and no one else but Kuno's father would come out in such a ridiculous fashion.

"Oh... me be seein' some new faces," Principal Kuno said, noticing the unfamiliar Hitomi and the somewhat known Ryoga Hibiki. With that principal Kuno took out his instruments of torture, his terrible barber skills were the bane of the school, some were unfortunate to meet that fate, but Ranma and the gang were strong. "So, you kikis be here for de free hair cuts?" he asked, pulling out his scissors.

"Uh..." Hitomi said, looking to the side, "No thanks, buzz cuts and bowl hair cuts are really stupid looking," she commented, of course her hair wasn't as stylish as modern standards and future standards would demand, but that was because she up held her mother's hairstyle and it was something that involved honor, principal Kuno was doing it for the shear enjoyment of causing children pain and suffering. Not to mention her style wasn't from the last century.

"Wha'chu be talking bout kiki! De buzz cut and de bowl cuts be like not loving de surfing, like not loving de grass skirts and the music dat be coming from the ukulele!" he got to say before Ranma went over and kicked principal Kuno in the gut and caused him to fall down, clenching his stomach.

"Look we're not to get a hair cut from some manic Hawaiian, we're here cause these two wanna' check out the school, which if you ask me sounds crazy," Ranma commented, anyone who attended the school was plagued with a life of insanity, but they already had friends there.

"D'oh, dat why dese kikis be here," Principal Kuno said, eyeing them for a moment before smiling. "Tell me what jew Kikis be named," he said, from there he reached down and prepared to introduce himself with his ukulele... the only problem was that he had a banjo. That caused him to look at it and inspect it, how had he mistakenly taken a banjo? He didn't even own one. The problem with that was that he couldn't give Ryoga and Hitomi a grand welcome, so, he only waited for them to introduce themselves.

"I'm Hitomi," the black haired Ranma girl said, "And I'm Ranma's cousin." she said, with that she stood forward and waved once.

Principal Kuno leaned forward and stared at Hitomi, then used his hand lower his sunglasses, what he was greeted with was a girl that looked like a girl version of Ranma. The way her hair, the texture around her eyes even matched Ranma's, he swore he was looking into the mirror image of Ranma... almost.

Then he turned is eyes to Ryoga, nodding his head once, "Now be your turn, kiki," principal Kuno ushered.

The lost boy stood forward and bowed his head once, "Ryoga Hibiki."

"Me gotta' say... dat dis kiki, Hitomi, look much like da Ranma kiki!" he proclaimed, laughing. Then rose his banjo and attempted to play a poorly copied Hawaiian song. The way he played the banjo was just unpleasant for everyone in the room, even Principal kuno, "me stop dat now..." he stated, trying to stop the ringing in his ears and the sound poisoning he had just recieved.

"That was... horrible," Ryoga added, shaking his head the way a dog would when they heard something unpleasant.

Now that Akane had gained her wits, she needed something to help confirm her thoughts of Hitomi being her child. She didn't trust her own judgment entirely, not that it was because a lack of faith in herself, but because she thought that a second person's perspective would putt her worried mind to ease on the subject, but she didn't know how to approach the question in a subtle manner, so, she went for broke and took the blunt choice. "Does she look anything like me, principal Kuno?"

The sunglasses wearing buffoon froze in place and then raised a brow, "Da incest no be allowed in me school, now go to glass."

Akane sighed and everyone in the room cringed with that statement, it had just been awkward. Even Hitomi had to remind herself that it was just a statement, there was nothing proving that and she knew what was really going on with everything. Though now she had to tour the school grounds with her father, that would certainly be interesting. "I'll have Ryoga give me a tour of the school!" Hitomi said, excited. From there she wrapped her arms around the lost boy's arm.

Principal Kuno smirked and crossed his arms, "Me tinks me hear da wedding bells!"

Everyone in the room groaned with that outrageous claim, Ranma groaned and slapped his forehead, Akane shook her head in disbelief of how stupid Principal Kuno could be and Hitomi rolled her eyes at the claim; she already had a stud to return to, but she could see why he'd make that claim, but for Ryoga the idea caught him off guard and made him feel strange. It wasn't anywhere near what he usually felt for Akane, but something was strange about these odd feelings around Hitomi, almost as if the feelings weren't entirely connected to her, as if, maybe the woman they should be near him be somewhat similar to Hitomi. These thoughts weren't so easy for Ryoga to process all at one time, at least for those with very little understanding of time travelers and time traveling mechanics.

"See ya'!" Hitomi exclaimed, turning to the door and taking her leave. She wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to see the school as it was in the past.

**Classroom**

Now was one of those moments where Ranma felt that school wasn't as important as the current events in his life; that actually happened very often. Though now was a special excuse, his supposed daughter from the future was there, but she seemed to cling to Ryoga, did that mean that he and Ryoga would actually be comfortable enough to be friends with each other? Sure, a small part of him still doubted that she could really be his child, her attitude was something he could only barely relate to. She held her own qualities, but none that he saw as ones that linked them together. She was always so happy, so, energetic , all things that knocked points off. If she was confident in herself and her skills she'd be proving herself instead of taking the time to tell anyone about the future.

Though he figured she probably got that from Akane, but even that had him with some doubts. Akane was dense because she often didn't want to see something that gave her a negative impact, but Hitomi didn't show any signs of that or even image wise, how could Akane's genes be so weak that none of them surface to the top? He was bound to be with Akane, wasn't he? His marriage with Akane was a sure fire thing to happen. He wasn't blind, he knew that Hitomi looked like his girl side, which made him wonder if it was the curse that made Hitomi's appearance so much like his girl form.

There was one last thing Ranma had to consider, that seemed to pop straight out of no where.

_Day Dream..._

Ryoga and Ranma were once again in each other's arms while Ranma was in girl form and Ryoga's eyes were locked with his; not to mention Ryoga's hands were still on her butt. The two stared into each other's eyes, both of their mouths opened ever so lightly as they leaned down to close the gape between them.

"Ranma..." Ryoga whispered, his eyes closing as the gape was nearly gone.

"Ryoga..." Ranma whispered back, closing her eyes completely.

_End of Day Dream_

Ranma's eyes widened and he slapped himself, blushing something fiecre. The classroom turned to him as he chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck, "Uh... bug was one my cheek," he explained. They easily bought it and went back to the lesson at hand. Though once everyone turned away from him, he stared off to the side and slowly rose his hand to his lips, the tingling feeling from his and Ryoga's heated kiss still leaving it's mark on him. That caused his heart beat to raise ever so slightly, which was honestly freaking him out. That damned kiss, how the hell had it even happened? He knew that his life was something along the lines of insane, but, still... for him to wake up in the middle of the night and change into a girl to kiss Ryoga? Ryoga wasn't known to ever try and get close to his girl side. He wondered if that Hitomi girl had something to do with it. What possibly motive could she have had? What does Ranma and Ryoga kissing benefit her? Was it maybe to get Akane and Ranma closer together by using Ryoga as a pawn? If that had been true she'd try to take up most of his time t leave him and Akane alone, so, everything didn't make any sense to him. Then a strange idea rose to the top of his thoughts, _"Pfft...! Like she'd be trying to get me and Ryoga together! I'm her dad! Not her mom!' Ain't no way I'm falling for a guy either,' _Ranma thought, that idea vanishing almost as soon as it came.

"Ranma can you tell me which fish changes gender to mate with a different sex?" The teacher asked, catching Ranma's attention.

"Huh!" he blushed, those thoughts of Ryoga and him coming once again.

**Hitomi & Ryoga**

Hitomi and Ryoga Hitomi and Ryoga were still walking through the halls as Ryoga wanted to show her the basket ball court that he's seen the last time he was there as she said they liked to play it together in the future. He kept on dragging her from place to place despite Hitomi trying to tell him the way. Finally she just let me wander as she was enjoying her time spent with him. He was telling her funny stories about him and Ranma, that Hitomi thought had future blackmail written all over them when she returned to her own time. She was missing her family, friends, siblings and fiancée but was generally enjoying getting to know the younger versions of her parents and uncles and aunts...so far.

She was laughing at the funny story of her mother tricking Ryoga into think she was his sister when she heard someone cry "My beloved pigtailed girl" and suddenly felt someone grab her just below her breasts, she blushed at the contact. She swiveled her head in the direction and gasped to recognize her Uncle Tatewaki Kuno glomping onto her. "Uncle Tachi what are you doing? I'm not Ranma, I'm her cousin Hitomi," she said and pushed against his arms. He seemed to be part octopus.

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet," he sang into her ear. "I love your new hair colour, did you dye it?"

Ryoga sighed while Hitomi finally understood what her mother had meant when she had described the former Kendoist as...somewhat delusional. "Kuno, she's right. She isn't the Pigtailed Girl, please let her go..." Ryoga said.

"Nonsense, I know my love when I see her. Look at those eyes, that body, she's perfection itself," he purred as he pulled her closer as she glared at him. "Why the fiery spirit within her shall always keep our marital bed warm?"

Hitomi blushed at this statement and both she and Ryoga got nosebleed at what it summoned to their minds. "Uncle Tatewaki, what would Aunt Nabiki say?" Hitomi cried loudly and gave him a shove that sent him sprawling. It was when they were suddenly surrounded by students that they realized that it was during a break between classes and everyone had over heard them.

"Aunt Nabiki?" a student roared.

"I-I..." Nabiki herself said at a loss for words and as red as a beet.

"Mrs. Kuno," her friend teased.

"I-I..." she repeated, too dazed at what she'd overheard. Okay she thought that Kuno was cute, but she'd certainly never told anyone. Yes he was an idiot but kind in his way and entertaining when they were out of the public eye.

"Yes Nabiki when did you two get married. Was it kind of like Ranma and Akane's engagement? They really don't beat around the bush when it comes to marriage in your family..." her friend said.

Kuno meanwhile had brushed himself off and turned to listen what was going on. He felt somewhat outraged at what they were implying. "If I were to marry a Tendo, it would be the lovely Akane or the beauteous Pigtailed girl. I certainly would never substitute them for a cheap imitation like Nabiki!" he said contemptuously.

Nabiki felt outraged at the insult and glared daggers at him.

Ryoga just calmly strode forward and said "You just assaulted my friend and insulted the sister of the kindly family that I'm staying with. Sorry but you deserve this!" and raised one foot and punted the kendoist so hard that he winked out of existence.

Nabiki and Kuno Nabiki gently placed a cold cloth on his forehead after finding him hanging upside down in the basket ball hoop that Ryoga still hadn't been able to find. Her anger had melted to pity and with Ranma's help she'd gotten him down and taken him to the nurse's office. When she looked at him unconscious, all she could see was an attractive young man who was rich in masculine beauty and a healthy toned body. His eyes were heavy lashed, his nose an adorable pug nose and his lips well shaped and sensuous. Nabiki had built up a reputation as being cold hearted, but wasn't really. She had a soft spot for the poetry spouting Kendoist and had since she'd first met him. Even back then he'd been cute with his floppy hair and gap toothed smile. She couldn't stop staring at his lips and imagined kissing him. On impulse she leaned pressed her lips softly to his, stealing his first kiss and giving him hers. His lips were like pure silk and she blushed and leaned back for fear that he might have caught her. She gasped and turned an even deeper red when he had his eyes open. Even though that she knew that the reputation she'd spent building for a life building was about to come crashing down, she couldn't help noticing how beautiful his onyx eyes were. Yet in them she saw only...confusion.

"Nabiki you kissed me, are you my wife?" Kuno asked sitting up. In his confusion he couldn't picture making out with a girl without being married to her. It certainly had had bad results in the past. "Kuno, I-I..." she answered, at a loss for words again.

"Because if that is the case then you and your sister agreed to marry and the Pigtailed Girl is now my concubine," he said getting into the same delusion he had been when he had been last attracted to her through a misunderstanding.

"Why you!" she cried and punted him herself. "As if I would!" she cried after him.

She couldn't keep the smile of satisfaction off her face when he disappeared again and then smiled a secret wistful smile at what he'd thought. That turned to a frown when in her memory of this event; he was wearing a fake mustache.

**Future**

Ranma gasped as she was sent back to her own mind, her connection had been broken during that moment. The other in the room watched her inhale and the leaves falling to the ground and the chi stones fading back to a normal color. There was a moment of pause, and then Cologne decided to be the first one to address this, "I have a hunch that Ranma failed to convince Hitomi, but something shocked her enough to get her back to us... what that could have been is beyond me."

Hideo was about to go and reach out to his mother, until she spoke.

"Akane?" Ranma said, in a shocked tone, "I gave him twenty years of my life, had four of his kids and wore women's underwear... and he's got the nerve to call me Akane!" Ranma shouted, standing up and clenching her arms to the sides, her blood seeping out through the sides of her closed fists.

Ivy leaned against Juro in fear for her life, the way Ranma's aura was flaring to life was something they hadn't seen in years when Ryoga had accidently called her Akane before, for some reason whenever Ryoga would mention his old crush on Akane, Ranma's jealous side would emerge and cause everyone near them to panic.

"M-mom!" Juro said, raising his hand, "Calm down! Those were different times, remember! It's not dad's fault!" Juro said, being the voice of reason.

Ranma gritted her teeth and felt a few tears fall from her eyes, all this combined with the fact that they had lost Ryoga. Now Ranma felt awful, she was pissed off by the man who had given her everything. Though being mad wasn't going to bring him back, she couldn't take out his aggression on him like she used to, she couldn't complain to him, she couldn't hold him, she couldn't laughe and have fun with him, she couldn't kiss him, she couldn't kiss the one that had made her come to love him. The circumstances were all against her and the family, and to top it all off her very future could be threatened with her daughter running around in the past. The idea of losing her family, the pieces of Ryoga she had left... it tore her apart.

"Damn you..." Ranma groaned, falling to her knees. She bared her teeth and pushed past this feeling, they would be no help like this.

"I understand what you're going through, Ranma," Happosai said, it hadn't happened to him but he could understand where most of her pain was coming from. For him and Cologne, all these were a combination of events that they able to put together, instead of all of them looking at Ranma as if she had gone insane. "To know that the man you hold deeply to your heart hasn't come to recognize you, that combined with what's happened recently would drive anyone over the edge, if only to add insult to injury, our way of reality is possibly in a path of destruction," with that he went over to Ranma and patted her shoulder.

Ranma fliched from the contact, but relaxed soon enough. "Y-yeah... I just miss him so much."

"We all do too..." Juro said, raising his head and revealing a tear. "I've always remembered the good times with him, all that he would go through to make sure I'd be happy, how determined he was to get back here when he got lost, how he'd fight anyone that'd threaten us as kids, how he'd laugh whenever we failed something and helped us as best as he could..." he said, raising his hand to wiped his tears.

"Hideo and I..." Hidiko said, making his presence known as well, "We always were hard to tell apart, even if we wore entirely different cloths, but mom and dad could always tell us apart, dad always said we had the Hibiki spirit in us, we don't get as lost as he does, but it was always nice knowing we shared a little of our dad's burden, it made us feel..."

"Closer..." Hideo added. "I remember when he'd let us ride on his shoulder when he'd jump from roof top to roof top, pout when he was reminded of his pig curse, but it was always so much fun to play with him when we were kids, and he'd sometimes pretend to be our pet dog-pig," Hideo chuckled sadly, adding his own tears of sorrow to the group.

"So, you're not alone..." Juro finished, then turned to Ivy who she herself was even crying. All those things that were said about him, even remineded her of the time he had helped her improve her physical strength. He was always so kind when teaching, now that he had no reason to be so angry at the world.

"If this time line changes, I want you all to know that I love you," Ranma said, then turned to them with a timid look. Though she wasn't able to keep herself from feeling jealous, it was one of those times when her emotions would get extremely mixed up. _"Damn it! If Hitomi fixes this present and doesn't kill us all... I'm gonna' show that stupid Ryoga what I can do! So much that his damn pig mind will have to redefine the word sex!" _she thought.

Suddenly the door bell rung and the rest turned their heads in the direction of the front door. "Huh?"

"I got it!" Ivy chimed in, running over to the door.

"W-who could be here at this time?" Ranma asked.

"MOM! DAD!" Ivy exclaimed, causing everyone in the room to turn their heads.

Mousse and Shampoo were there, although they had both retained their physical beauty of their teenage bodies, they had changed and matured. Shampoo's hair had been trimmed into a shoulder length bob and her well defined curves were a little curvier after giving birth to three children. Mousse had given up contacts to wear glasses with slim black frames, technological advances in glass lenses allowed him a feather weight lenses that were of the strength he needed without blocking the view of his eyes. He still retained is long hair only because Shampoo wouldn't let him cut it, so sometimes he braided it or tied it back. Shampoo frowned at her daughter "We came to see what you were doing after you did the silent run out on us when you gathered what you needed for what we both recognized to be an Amazon spell. What are you up to young lady?" she asked her and then looked up and said "Great-grandmother?" in a startled voice to see her on the screen.

"Shampoo, please call me Cologne when I'm in this form, I don't like being called anyone's great-grandmother when I'm this hot," Cologne said.

Shampoo and Mousse took in the scene and finally said. "What's going on? You're not trying to summon the dead are you?" Mousse asked.

"No Hitomi's in the past and Cologne and Ivy did the spell so that I could talk to her," Ranma said slumping down in defeat at how her conversation with Hitomi went. "I didn't mean to get Ivy in trouble; I didn't want to worry anybody. You've all been so good to me. Ivy's a good girl," Ranma said.

Shampoo looked at Mousse "Hitomi from back then was _our_no wonder she looked so much like Ranma"

"It all makes sense now" Mousse concurred.

"So you remember her to?" Ranma asked them.

"You don't often see another Ranma who isn't Ranma and when you do, you remember her" Shampoo said. "Now we are staying and helping, Hitomi's like another daughter to us and we need to be here. Besides we filled up the catering van with food, we know how this family likes to eat and we thought you might not feel like cooking."

Ranma almost started sobbing at how kind everyone was being, instead she pretended she had something in her eye and Hidiki even searched her eye to help her go along with the pretense "But you're both so busy with your restaurant business!" she protested.

"Getting Hitomi back to our time is more important than that. Besides we didn't hire a good manager for nothing. Now come on Mousse, help me with the setting up the chaffing dishes" Shampoo suggested.

"Of course" he said following her.

"I'll help too" Ivy said trailing after them.

"And I insist on helping also!" Juro said following his love.

Shampoo paused and regarded the young pair "Such a gentlemen, he would go far in the restaurant business," she said with a teasing smile.

"Mother!" Ivy wailed in embarrassment.

This caused even Ranma to smile, there was a time she couldn't stand the Amazon girl and had thought Mousse to be annoying. Now she thought highly of them both and regarded them as being some of her best friends. She caught Cologne's eye. "I have some great friends," she said almost wistfully.

"While you were talking I spoke to Phil, we're catching a plane and will be there in a few days," Cologne said.

"But you never travel, you told us that it interferes with Phil's lifestyle choice," Ranma said.

"A lost child is more important than that, you might need my help and I have more knowledge of spells than either Ivy, Mousse or Shampoo." Cologne paused for a second to narrow her eyes. "We'll be there soon," Cologne said in a voice that brooked no argument.

"Thank you," Ranma said, feeling close to tears again.

Once Shampoo and Mousse set up the chaffing dishes and put the food in them to heat, they sent the children away so that they could talk in private. "I worry about Hitomi" Shampoo said, in times of stress her perfect Japanese slipped a bit.

"Me too, but she's a bright resourceful young girl, she'll be fine," Mousse assured her taking his wife in his arms. She leaned into his comforting warmth.

"Yes but it seem like just yesterday she little girl in high chair covered with bean paste..." Shampoo replied.

"She's a young women who's perhaps the most powerful martial artist of her generation and she's knows all our styles. I would hate to spar with her," Mousse said.

"I guess, it just that she so innocent, she raised in happy bubble by protective parents, she not forced to grow up fast like all of us were. Such happy girl, so bubbly. No wonder Ranma so worried," Shampoo said in despair

"Yes who's as smart as a whip, has a strong sense of justice and as stubborn as a mule. Don't forget that Ryoga's was her father, she's abnormally strong for a girl and I'm sure that she'll make friends with the jerks we were back then," he assured her.

"We really were jerks weren't we?" Shampoo asked.

"Pretty sure that what the teenage years are for," Mousse said.

"None of the kids are jerks," she pointed out.

"We raised the jerkiness out of them. We weren't so lucky" Mousse said causing her to smile. Then he started laughing.

"This not funny situation Mr. Man," she said irked.

"I know but here we are in an almost supernatural situation all banding together to help Ranma, I feel sixteen again," he replied.

Even Shampoo couldn't resist a laugh "That's true. What is it about Ranma that draws weirdness to her?" she asked.

"It's just because she's Ranma," Mousse answered and then they both went to summon the hungry teenagers...who unfortunately had their mother's appetite.

**After School Snack**

"Ranma, I don't understand why we have to stop at the Nekohanten when we're going to be eating in an hour," Ryoga protested.

"Cause I'm hungry now!" she complained, she'd been turned into a girl by one of the many fluke accidents that seemed to surround her. In this case the school janitor had been cleaning the floors and had accidentally dumped his pail of water... right onto her head as they were about to leave school. Hitomi by reflex had managed to get Ryoga out of the side splash in time to prevent his own transformation.

"How could you be hungry, you already raided the home economics class and got fed cookies only a few minutes ago!" Ryoga snarled.

"I'm a growing boy," she said as she opened the door.

"You're going to be growing in directions you don't like later on in life if you keep this up," Ryoga muttered, this caused Hitomi to cover her mouth to stifle her giggle. She felt at home being with the both of them. Her parents may not have been together yet, but they still bugged each other just as much.

"What was that?" Ranma asked.

"Nothing..." Ryoga replied with a smirk.

Before they were seated at a table, Shampoo already was rushing towards them with three orders of deluxe ramen. Ranma was surprised when she didn't glomp onto him; in fact she seemed somewhat distracted as she greeted them and served them their food. Shampoo hadn't been able to get the conversation she had with Hitomi about her future out of her head. She found herself examining Mousse and wondering when her childhood friend had grown up to be such a desirable young man. It was like she was examining him with new eyes. He had been a cute kid and now he was...delicious. She accidentally caught in hall when he had been going to bathe and was wearing just a pair of jogging shorts. He'd blushed and apologized for his lack of attire while she enthusiastically examined the hard planes of his muscular chest and wide shoulders. Shampoo frowned when she saw Mousse approaching their table. Her jaw dropped when he suddenly hugged both Hitomi and Ranma and seemed to be speaking tenderly to the startled looking girls. Shampoo's jealous flared at the same time her battle aura did. Damn it Mousse was supposed to like Shampoo, not Ranma or the strange girl who looked like her. Her hand found a bowl perched on a nearby table as if of its own accord, grabbing it she held it over her head and took deadly aim.

Mousse stood in front of Ranma's table and looked for any sign that Hitomi might resemble him. It wasn't that he didn't believe her when she said that he was going to marry Shampoo. But sometimes accidents happened outside of marriage, perhaps that what his dreams were trying to tell him the gullible boy thought. What is Ranma and himself got drunk one night and Hitomi was the result? "Ranma, Hitomi can I talk to you?" Mousse asked them as he approached them.

Ryoga had been unable to eat as he watched the dainty girls in front of him perch demurely on their stools...and proceeded to eat everything in site. He marveled where in their petite frames they put so much food when both look alike girls asked him at the same time "You going to eat that?" and then shared a laugh.

"Sure, I'm not hungry," he said sliding it towards them and was rewarded with what a pair of barracudas must look like on a feeding frenzy.

"Ranma, Hitomi can I talk to you?" they heard a voice saying and wiping ramen from their lips they turned two set of matching blue eyes on him.

"Sure what would you like Mousse?" Ranma asked.

Mousse struggled with what to say and then decided that actions speak louder then words, wordlessly he reached out and hugged them to him again. "I just want to say that I always wanted to be a father and I promise will live up to my responsibilities. Ranma I'll be there for you," he said in voice chocked with emotion.

Ryoga was getting just a little sick of people hugging and flirting with Hitomi and his Ranma. "Wait just a minute there Mousse, unhand them!" he cried, shaping his hands into fist. Then he froze with shock when he realized that he had just thought of Ranma as being his.

Ranma stood up "Mousse, what the hell is this about?" she cried and wrenched Hitomi from his arms.

Mousse looked at the agitated martial artists and opened his mouth to explain, when a bowl bounced harshly of his head and he pitched forward.

Hitomi caught him and quickly went into action "Mousse sit down, are you okay?" she asked him, removing his glasses to see if his pupils were dilated. She glared at the other two with her. "Don't just stand there, fetch some ice!" she ordered them.

Ranma shrugged and said, "He gets hit all the time, he'll be fine."

"What where's your sense of compassion? I need ice!" she snarled at her.

"Miss if you will permit me," a kind hearted girl at a nearby table as she finished her water and dumped her leftover ice into a hankerchief and handed it to her. Hitomi thanked her and put it onto the faintly groaning boy's head. She held two fingers in front of Mousse's face and asked him "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"I can't tell without my glasses," he moaned back.

"You really are blind," she said. Then she turned to glare daggers at Shampoo "What are you doing you could have really hurt him. What if you had hit your airen?" she asked sarcastically.

"I didn't mean to hurt...is his fault!" Shampoo said in a flustered voice, her face could have steamed a lobster.

"Shampoo my love what did I do?" Mousse moaned shaking Hitomi off himself and kneeling in front of Shampoo.

Cologne hopped out and was surprised to find the future girl fussing over Mousse. "Mousse did you hurt yourself again..." Cologne groaned, "Get back to work!" she ordered him. It was common for her to put the Neko haten above the needs of workers.

Hitomi may have been a bubbly girl, but she had her father's temper too. "He didn't hurt himself, she viciously attacked him!" Hitomi said, pointing to Shampoo, "He could have a concussion!" she cried. "Yet no one lifted a finger to help him!" she snarled rounding on both Ranma and Ryoga how involuntarily shrank at her battle aura.

"Well Mousse has a smart mouth and often gets hit by Shampoo or I. He's just a male after all," Cologne said by way of explanation.

Hitomi's battle aura could have burned the restaurant down by that point upon hearing that. "You bunch of hypocrites, you and you!" she yelled pointing at Ranma and Ryoga. "You taught me to always be compassionate and look out for my fellow man!"

"And you and you!" She pointed at Shampoo and Cologne. "Always told me to never tolerate bullies, yet both of you are bullies. I really can't understand how a bunch of fucked up teenagers turned out to be such great people..." taking a deep breathe, she continued with her rant. "As for you!" she raged pointing at Mousse, "You need to start standing up for yourself; no one wants a doormat as a husband. I'm sick to death of you people. I'm going back to the Tendo house," she cried and left. Leaving the three amazons and two martial artists stunned in their tracks.

"Looks like she takes after Akane when it comes to her temper..." Ranma commented.

"I guess we should go after her," Ryoga said. "Sorry we have to go..." he repeated to the others.

Cologne looked at Shampoo and asked "Shampoo why did you hit Mousse?"

"He want to cheat on Shampoo with Ranma and that weird girl, you no can deny Mousse. Tell truth now!" Shampoo said and pouted at him.

"I do not want anything to do with either of them. I thought that they...might be related to me in some way," he protested with a blush.

"Yes they look like Chinese Amazon, you two timing bastard!" Shampoo cried and slapped him across the face, turned on her heel and left.

"What did I do?" he asked Cologne with a sob.

"Perhaps she doesn't like your sexual fantasies about Ranma, you really should listen to music when you take a long time in the washroom," Cologne said and hit a smile when Mousse did a face plant.

Ranma and Ryoga followed the pissed off girl, she was still giving off battle aura and her stomping would have made Godzilla proud in taking out Tokyo had she been much taller. Neither of them dared approach the muttering, glowing girl. "What happened back there? Why were Mousse and Shampoo acting so weird?" Ryoga asked, befumbled by the encounter.

"Mousse? I have no idea about... as for Shampoo, I swear she got jealous when Mousse hugged me," Ranma answered. "I guess it has something to do with their crazy laws that I'll never understand."

"You think that Hitomi's going to be okay?" Ryoga asked in concern.

They both glanced ahead just in time to catch her punching a wall until it crumbled and then paused to yell at it for being inconveniently in her way.

"Eventually..." Ranma answered with a shudder. She tried to remember when was the last time she'd seen someone decimating a wall that easily. It seemed so familiar.

Hitomi's anger slowly died down during the walk, she had to try and remind herself that this was a different time, but seeing the way that Mousse was being treated sparked that intense anger she tried her best to keep dormant. She realized that was probably the strong influence of her father's side, "Guess dad's side is stronger than I thought..." she mumbled and then turned her head to look behind her and see that her two parents were still around for her.

Ryoga sighed and placed his hands in his pockets and walked over to Hitomi; now that she had slown down enough and her battle aura wasn't as lethal as before. "Look... I'm sorry we didn't really care what was happening, in our time, this is part of our everyday lives, doesn't it make you wonder how you grew up so nicely?" he asked, then paused as he saw that she really hadn't been seeing what he was pointing out. "Well, the people who taught you had to grow up and learn it for themselves, right now, I'd love nothing more than to defeat Ranma and shame him in front of everyone, but from what you're telling me and given out, is that Ranma and me actually become friends but right now, I'm not used to that idea, it infact makes me sick..." Ryoga said.

"Oh..." Hitomi said, now resembling Ryoga in his depression states. Though she was brought out of her depressed feelings when Ryoga placed his hand on Hitomi's shoulder then brought her into a warm embrace.

"Give us some time, we'll get there soon enough, and even if I lose Akane and have some other woman as my wife, at least we'll have to teach you what we've learned," Ryoga said.

Ranma crossed her arms, it seemed that those two shared what Ranma liked to call, being a sap syndrome. She had to admit though, the scene was rather lovely. "Yeah, what pig-brain said," Ranma said, walking over to them and smiling.

"Thanks..." Hitomi sighed, then reached out and grabbed Ranma, bringing her into the embrace to, even though Ranma had protested against it, she eventually accepted it.

"This is sooo cheesy..." Ranma commented.

"I agree!" Hitomi giggled.

**Tendo Home **

The walk home was much more cheerful and the greeting to the Tendo home was as expected, Hitomi being greeted by Soun Tendo hugging her and praising the gods that she had been alright. That the precious jewel of the Tendo home had been okay. Ranma didn't mind any of Soun's strange antics, as long as it wasn't her, she was glad. Though she noticed that Ryoga had once again became a bit timid, but not as timid as before, which made Ranma wonder if Ryoga had come to terms with the fact that he wouldn't end up with Akane. At first Ranma wondered why she had even cared that Ryoga was depressed, in a way, she figured it was justice, but as time went on she found out that she truly cared. They were going to be friends in the future, would getting a head start be all too bad? That wasn't enough for Ranma to go over to Ryoga and try and cheer him up, but it was enough for him not to try and make the situation worse for him.

Akane had finally returned and was now in the kitchen cooking something up, Hitomi had been watching TV at the time and was pretty much able to tell what was going to happen in all of Kasumi's shows, since she had future knowledge of everything, which helped get Kasumi started on cooking. Kasumi was usually always in a hurry to finish watching her latest episodes then get to cooking, but know that she was sure that a certain couple in her series were going to get together she was much more giddy than she usually is and went to the kitchen, unfortunately Akane had decided that she was going to help with the cooking.

The good part was that Akane's cooking was going to be separate from Kasumi's and therefore wouldn't taste like three month old garbage. At the table everyone had gathered, Ryoga had been a bit reluctant to eat there, since Soun had been giving him looks. This was a little longer than Ryoga would usually stay and there was really no purpose for him to stay, but Hitomi kept on insisting that he stay, which of course lead him to wonder if Hitomi had romantic interest in the lost boy, which wasn't a good idea because she was from the future. Though his mind probably found Ryoga traveling to the future as a comforting thing, he wouldn't be in the way of Ranma and Akane's marriage, which would decrease the chances of meddling, if only just a little bit.

Everyone had ate Kasumi's cooking much earlier than Akane's, since Akane kept messing up the recipe and having to back track several times. Kasumi of course would offer help, but Akane would pass, seeing cooking as some sort of "Right of Passage" thing.

Now that everyone had gone off to do their own thing; since Akane was going ti finish cooking soon, Though sadly Ryoga, Hitomi and Ranma had stayed to chat.

"Wow... I wonder what she's cooking, I bet it's good," Hitomi commented, smiling and leaning back on her little cushion seat.

"The poor, poor girl..." Ranma said, shaking her head.

Ryoga nodded his own head as well, but it was half hearted.

"What're you talking about? Akane's a great cook!" Hitomi stated, smiling and licking her lips. In her time Akane's cooking had gotten to the point where some might consider it, addictive. She was certainly in for a rude awakening.

"Thank you!" Akane shouted from the kitchen. Then entered the room with a tray filled with what seemed to be a strange version of miso soup, a soup that was bubbling. It must have seemed like something out of a poorly done movie which involved a witch cooking something for a pretty girl, only to poison her. "I'm glad _someone _around here likes my cooking," Akane said, turning to Ranma and glaring, earning a raspberry from the red headed girl.

"He doesn't know what he's missing!" with that she drove right in and stuck the spoon in her mouth. It felt like her taste buds were being assulated with flavor terrorists and causing her stomach to groan in distaste.

"I should be cooking for you anyways, what're future moms for anyways, huh?" Akane asked then happily left the room humming to herself and going back to the kitchen.

Hitomi nodded and ran out of the room, holding her hand over her mouth and hoping to reach the bathroom before she tossed her cookies all over the place, sadly she'd probably lose Kasumi's well made launch in the process.

Ranma sighed and stood up, taking the bowl and disposing of it the only way she knew how, by throwing it out the door and hoping some poor sap didn't touch the toxic glop. One would wonder why not simply throw out the food and take the bowl back inside? Because each plate/bowl they'd keep that formally had Akane's cooking in it would often leave trace amounts of her food and that would sometimes cause Kasumi's food to be filled with toxic qualities.

Ryoga stood up and followed Hitomi to the bathroom, where he'd have to hold Hitomi's pig tail up in order to keep her vomit from touching her hair. "I-I can't believe how terrible that was... it was as if I tasted three skunks dipped in-" she paused and tossed her cookies some more, "L-like three burnt skunks dipped in diarrhea!" she shouted and continued to fill the toilet up.

"Next time I warn you, I suggest you listen," Ryoga said.

**After Hitomi's barfing**

"Let's get back downstairs. Try to act like you liked it, Akane's pretty sensitive about her... cooking skills" Ryoga advised her.

"Really I don't think I've ever seen Akane mad before," Hitomi said in surprise.

Ryoga's jaw dropped at this statement "So you've never seen her mallet?" he asked her.

"Akane's temper is off the chart. Ranma's the one who gets her the most worked up!"

"What mallet? The Akane I know is a vet, a fabulous cook and a very gentle women who loves kids," Hitomi said with surprise. "She has the patience of a saint, even when a pair of kids set her rug on fire when they were trying to make s'mores in her fireplace," Hitomi said blushing at the memory. Akane hadn't gotten mad but her parents had and made her pay for the new rug out of her allowance.

"She sounds like a good mom," Ryoga said with a smile and small laugh.

"She sure is," Hitomi agreed and then stopped dead to find Ranma and Akane fighting. Akane's battle aura was a horrifying sight.

"Yeesh Akane, how could you feed her your guest toxic waste, you probably knocked ten years off Hitomi's life!" Ranma chided with her hands on her hips.

"What do you mean, I'm a great cook!" Akane yelled back.

"Yes if you were a scientist brewing up a concoction for biological warfare!" Ranma shot back.

"Hitomi, you liked my cooking right?" Akane asked her.

"It was...really tasty" Hitomi said, not wanted to get drawn into their fight.

"You made her sick with your poison!" Ranma shot back. "Even Ryoga agrees that you shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen..."

"Ryoga is that true?" Akane said in a hurt tone of voice.

Ryoga turned bright red and tapped the ends his fingers together nervously, "Ranma's exaggerating, I did say that you could stand some improvement. I'm sure you'll get better..." he said in a careful voice, suddenly knowing what trying to walk on eggshells was like.

"Perhaps you would like to have a bowl then?" Ranma said thrusting one towards him. Ryoga involuntarily reared back in horror and then watched as some slopped over the rim and started eating its way through the varnish on the floor. Ryoga took the bowl and threw it out the door before it could do any more damage.

"Well congratulations Akane, you developed a new floor stripper," Ranma snarled.

Akane saw, well red and pulled out her mallet. "I'll get you for insulting my cooking!" she cried while her battle aura reached its zenith. Ranma quickly grabbed on of Hitomi's arms while Ryoga grabbed the other, "Go, go, go!" they exclaimed.

"We need to get out of here" Ranma cried and they both dragged her out of the house at a hurried pace. They ran around the block and then using the back entrance, they snuck into the dojo.

"Wouldn't this be the first place that Akane would look?" Hitomi asked, she felt somewhat shell shocked at the depths of Akane's temper.

"Nah, this would be the last place she looked. Martial artists in a dojo in her own backyard, that would be a ludicrous place for anyone to hide," Ranma said and with Ryoga's help got out mats for them to sit on to wait out Akane's anger.

"Wow things are different from my time..." Hitomi said.

"It has pretty much been a normal day for us," Ranma said with a smile. Ryoga nodded and rolled his eyes.

"It's like living in a video game or one of those animes," Hitomi observed.

"You get used to it," Ranma said. "So you said that Mousse and Shampoo marry. Who else gets hitched?" Ranma asked to pass the time.

"Ukyou marries Konatsu, Nabiki marries Kuno and his sister Mikado the male half of the Golden Pair, Kasumi marries Dr. Tofu….." she said with a yawn.

"Gee never saw Dr. Tofu staying sane enough to even talk to her," Ranma commented.

"Are you okay, you look tired?" Ryoga asked.

"Sorry it's been a long day and the stress of getting my illusions shattered about the people I thought I knew must be making me sleepy..." Hitomi said with a sheepish grin.

Ranma gestured to a mat, "Take a nap, its going to be a while before we can safely go back."

"I guess I should" she said and lay down; she was out like a light in seconds. Ranma watched while Ryoga took off his outer shirt and put it over her. He rejoined her wearing just his yellow sleeves t-shirt.

"You like her," Ranma stated, waiting with bated breath for his answer and being confused why this meant so much to her.

"Yes." he paused, which made Ranma cringe ever so slightly. "In a kid sister sort of way. She reminds me of Akane in many ways..." Ryoga answered.

"She looks nothing like her," Ranma said studying her face.

"No, I mean how she's kind of innocent like Akane and Kasumi. I guess you must be a highly protective father like Soun Tendo," Ryoga observed.

"Soun Tendo drinks too much, is pretty selfish when you think about it and a drama queen," Ranma protested.

"But he's still a good father; he's highly protective of his daughter and provides for them as best he can. He never tolerates strange men around any of them. It can't be easy raising three attractive girls on his own," Ryoga pointed out.

Ranma paused, she'd never thought of him that way before. "So I guess he is a good father in his way. I understand that their mother won several beauty pageants before he married her," she mentioned.

"Lucky dog, no wonder his girls are so pretty," Ryoga said.

"You think I would make a good father?" Ranma asked.

"With your upbringing? I would say that you would be there for any child you had and would make sure they have a proper home and schooling. I couldn't see you dragging them around on an insane training trip when they could barely walk," Ryoga pointed out.

"Yeah I have a bad father," Ranma concurred "I like my mother when she doesn't talk about me committing seppuku. Gods if she ever found out about my curse," she said with a shudder. "You have nice parents."

"When you can find them," Ryoga said with his mouth twitching in a smile.

"Don't you miss your home?" Ranma asked him.

"Of course but even when I find it, I don't find them, so what's the point of staying there? Oddly enough I feel more at home in the Tendo house. I guess because I'm drawn to happy families."

"I noticed that you said that only Akane and Kasumi were innocent?" Ranma asked.

"I bet Nabiki was born with a calculator in one hand and a black book full of blackmail notes in the other," Ryoga replied and they shared a soft laugh so they wouldn't wake Hitomi up.

"I kind of envy her for her upbringing," Ryoga admitted.

"I'm sure you'll make a great father too. I mean you spent most of your life getting lost. I bet when you have a family and home to go to that you'll try twice as hard to get back there!" Ranma said.

"I pity the woman I marry, she'll have to spend half her life leading me around like some sort of guide dog and fielding calls from phone booths down the block because I can't remember which way to turn. She'll have to take me everywhere like you used to take me to school..." Ryoga said.

"That was no big deal, you only lived a couple of houses down," she protested, glad that the dim light was hiding the blush painting her cheeks. "Besides any girl would be lucky to have you, pal."

"Oh come on, I'm hardly that great a catch," Ryoga said.

"Directional challenge aside, you're brave, an utter gentlemen, strong and handsome!" Ranma said and then laughed and said, "Pretend I didn't just say the last part." Ranma said with a blank stare.

"Not a problem," Ryoga stammered with a blush.

"Do you think that we're really as fucked up as Hitomi says?" Ranma asked.

"I think that we have a lot of growing to do and you tend to surround yourself with damaged people," Ryoga explained, looking to the side. Though he knew he was one of those damaged people.

"How so?" Ranma asked.

Ryoga turned back to Ranma and began with. "Again family is the key," he said, putting his hand out to Ranma and pointing at her her, if only to emphasize the point that he was trying to get across. "Most of your friends had to grow up fast. Does Ukyo have anyone in the world? Look at the Kunos', they have a father but he's even worse than yours. Then take Shampoo and Mousse, I'm sure they have family missing them but she can't go back to China without you and Mousse won't go without her. Naturally we are all going to be kind of weird with what we're going through. It's bound to happen in our situations," Ryoga pointed out.

"You know... you're a lot smarter than you seem," Ranma observed.

"Don't tell anyone, it would ruin my reputation as all muscle no brain. I've seen a lot and I like to think I learn from each experience going around the world and then again," he said with amusement in his voice. He looked again at the sleeping Hitomi. "I envy you, you're going to have all of this and a nice family too."

"I guess my future will be pretty nice," she said, gazing at the sleeping girl.

"This is kind of a weird request, but do you mind if I hang out with Hitomi in the future?" he asked.

Ranma's jaw dropped "You're asking my permission to court a girl who isn't even born yet?" she asked incredulously, acknowledging out loud that Hitomi was her future daughter.

"No, no, not like that. She seems to think that we're great friends in the future and I just like hanging out with her. I would hardly expect to date a sixteen year old girl when I'm in my thirties, I'm hardly a pervert. I meant I just want to hang out with her as an uncle, play basketball with her or teach her my martial arts, that sort of thing," he explained.

Ranma sighed contently, glad that the discussion wasn't going in that direction,"I think that's a great idea" Ranma said, "I guess that means that we're friends in the future too."

"Why not now? I think its time to bury that hatchet. It's obvious that I'm not going to be with Akane, I'll meet my future wife when it comes time I guess," Ryoga said.

"She'll be a lucky girl," Ranma said, seeing a side of Ryoga she thought didn't exist. "Friends?" she said extending her hand.

"Friends" he concurred taking her tiny hand in his own, he couldn't help but notice how tiny and soft it was. They shared a look for a beat too long and then both turned away to hide their blushes.

"I think its time we go back..." Ranma said rubbing her head in embarrassment.

Ryoga responded by picking Hitomi up like she was feather weight. She sighed and snuggled into his embrace.

"I could have carried her!" Ranma protested in a hushed tone.

"You're still pretty strong in girl form, but its easier for me to do it," he explained and Ranma understood that he meant no insult by it "you can get the door and take off her shoes," he suggested.

"Okay" Ranma said and impulsively picked up Ryoga's shirt off the floor and carried it for him. She opened the door while Ryoga easily carried the slumbering girl to the entrance of the house. Ranma eased that open too; Akane saw them and opened her mouth to say something to them. Ranma pressed her finger to her lips and indicated to Hitomi. Akane shut her mouth and beckoned them to follow her, she led them to her room and pointed to the futon Hitomi had been sleeping on and Ryoga tenderly laid her on it. Akane ushered them out and got the sleepy girl up long enough to change in the pajamas that Akane had lent her before going back to sleep.

The boys parted for the night, both secure in the knowledge that they had finally mended the rift in their friendship.

Hitomi's stomach was growling as she hadn't had any supper not to mention Akane's cooking caused her to lose Kasumi's sweet cooking. She had inherited her mother's appetite and ability to eat anything without gaining an ounce. Sneaking from Akane's bedroom wearing a pair of Akane's loose tank top pajamas, she snuck into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Finding some left over beef stir in a Tupperware container, she quickly heated it up and sat at the table to eat. "I guess you were hungry too" she heard a voice saying and looked up to see Ryoga smiling at her.

"Sure, there's plenty. Would you like to share this with me?" she asked getting out another plate and pulling out some spare chopsticks. "Sure I love eating Kasumi's food... it doesn't kill you like Akane's" he joked. They shared a small laugh and ate companionably in silence. "So I guess that everyone's different now from how you know them in the future?" he guessed.

Hitomi rolled her eyes "You could say that again."

"So I guess that everyones different now from how you know them in the future?" he said without missing a beat. Hitomi turned her sparkling eyes on him, marveling that her father's jokes were just as corny now. He answered by giving her a fang toothed smile, which she returned.

"What do you think of now?" he asked her.

"I can see that everyone has the potential to become what they are when I know them, but they have a bunch of growing up to do," she said honestly. "As for Nerima itself; it wouldn't be nearly so wacky without all you here."

"I don't live here" he pointed it.

"You will and you'll be very happy here," she assured him.

"With my mystery woman who I already know but have overlooked," he returned.

"Not for much longer. I can't tell you who she is, let's just say you're going to have a great life," she said with a grin.

"I love the idea of having sons but I've always wanted a daughter to spoil," Ryoga said, wondering why he felt so comfortable talking to this near stranger about something so person.

"You'll have one, she'll be a real handful and a complete tomboy, but you'll spoil her rotten," she replied.

"I like that idea," he admitted with a blush, finding himself thinking about how to create children.

"You're thinking naughty thoughts" she observed.

"I am not" he said hotly.

"You always get that look on yourself when you are," she replied with a giggle.

"I guess we know each other. I must be a good friend to your family" he said.

"The best one ever!" she replied and took their empty dishes and washed them quickly. On impulse she kissed Ryoga on the cheek.

"What did I tell you about showing affection to people who don't know you yet?" he chided her while blushing again.

"You'll know me really well" she replied smiling at how cute he looked when he was flustered. "Now I have to go to bed, we have school in the morning" she said in an ironic tone of voice.

"Tell me about it" he replied, rolling his eyes. "Goodnight Hitomi" he said.

"Goodnight Ryoga" she said. He watched her walk down the hall and noticed for the first time that she had a star shaped birthmark on her left shoulder that the pajama top left exposed. He frowned at this, he had the same one in the same location. It was a Hibiki family trait to have a star shaped birthmark.

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Please share your thoughts with us!

DaisukiFox~

Obsidians~


	5. Chapter 5

Siddy : This chapter is brought to you by one legged dogs around the world and the letter Q. Have fun reading the chappie as we did writing it. Over to you Foxy Man

Me: This is the fox coming to you with a great new chapter! I've been getting my writing spirit back and I'm telling you I'm loving it! This is one entertaining little team project we got going here. I love it so much Sorry... foxxy is excited.

Osid :How excited are you?

Me: So excited... that... that I'm hearing voices in my head! lol Just kidding.

Disclaimer: We don't own Ranma, he's free to go once we're through with him.

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Ryoga couldn't get the revelation of what Hitomi's birthmark might mean. He was aware that she was the youngest of Ranma's children so did that mean that Ranma might be somehow be related to him? Was Akane a relative that Ryoga didn't know about? Then his thoughts turned darker, what if Akane and himself had an extramarital affair behind Ranma's back and Hitomi was the result? Ryoga's thoughts headed in the other direction and considered the same with Ranma's girl side and mental slapped himself for heading down that path. Ryoga couldn't picture himself cheating on his friend with his wife and was opposed to infidelity. Had he changed in the future? Feeling nervous about facing Hitomi, he let himself into the house and quickly got ready to face the day. As silent as a ninja he washed his face, brushed his teeth, brushed his hair and got into a clean change of clothing. He appreciatively sniffed the well laundered clothes and silently blessed Kasumi for washing them for him. There was something about having someone launder them for you instead of having to wash them in a stream or else in a laundry mat and have to stay there for hours in case you couldn't find your way back to them. Ryoga had lost so many clothes that way.

Stealing from the house he chose a direction at random and trusted fate to bring him somewhere where he would find somewhere to think and kind people who would help him back to the Tendo house.

He was surprised when he discovered himself in front of the Nekohanten, which he shouldn't have been; it was only a couple of blocks over and had been bought with distance to Ranma in mind. Finding it open he pushed open the door to find Mousse setting up for breakfast. "Are you open?" he asked him.

Mousse glanced at the clock and saw that it was earlier than he thought, "I guess so," he told the other martial artist and led him to a table.

Ryoga opened the menu but couldn't seem to focus on anything. "Just bring me some sake" he asked, recalling how that seemed to 'help' Genma, Soun and Happosai when they were depressed, sad in general, happy or in any sort of mood what so ever.

A vein throbbed in Mousse's head, "Ryoga you're sixteen and so am I; I can't sell you booze anymore more then I can _serve_ them to you," he stated. "Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?"

"Just one sake, just put it in a teapot and no one will be the wiser," Ryoga pleaded, "please?" he asked clasping his hands together in an adorable manner, not that Mousse was into guys, but a sad face often worked when it came to certain people, betting on Mousse was certainly a risk for him feeling better on the possible future. "I had an unsettling night and just need something to relax my nerves!"

Mousse scowled at him, "Okay but just one!" he exclaimed, holding up one finger. "We could lose our liquor license if anyone found out we sold liquor to a minor!" Mousse said and secreted the potent liquid into a teapot. "So... what happened?" he asked.

Ryoga poured the liquor spiked tea into his cup, he shuddered as he drank it down in one swift gulp. "I think I'm going to have a kid in the future..." he said, with a pant in his tone.

Mousse looked at him like he'd gone insane. "Most people of child bearing years might too. You could even have one now if you were sexually active," he said. He noted how the other martial artist had turned bright red at this remark. "Which I would say judging from your crimson hued complexion that you're not," This remark caused Ryoga to go even a deeper red colour.

"As if you're _not_ a virgin yourself!" he said hotly, slamming his cup down.

"I live with a woman at least, I would say that my chances are better than yours!" Mousse shot back.

Ryoga blew a raspberry, "Yes, having her great-grandmother sleeping in the same room as her is the height of romance!" he snapped.

"Its going to happen, Hitomi told me so..." Mousse returned.

"Yes. Hitomi never lies about anything..." Ryoga said and poured himself another drink and threw it down his throat.

"What do you mean?" Mousse asked.

"I think that Hitomi is going to be my kid. There is a star shaped birthmark that runs in my family; at least one kid in every generation gets it. If you're directionally challenged its red in colour, if its tan coloured you aren't. Hers is located on her right shoulder blade in the same location as mine, only her's is tan coloured," Ryoga said and looked out to see if what he was saying made sense.

Mousse looked relieved, "So... she's not mine?" he said in a sheepish voice.

""No... why would you think that?" Ryoga asked, blinking a few times.

" Cologne suggested that Ranma and I... never mind, damn that woman!" Mousse said and took out a cup from his sleeve

"If Ranma is her father, then who's her mother and how's she related to you?" Mousse asked him.

"I have no idea..." Ryoga said taking a sip of his sake.

"Perhaps you go back to Jusenkyo and fall into the spring of the drowned young girl?" Mousse suggested finishing the teapot.

Ryoga blanched at the idea and frowned at the empty teapot while he tried to picture what a female version of himself would look like. All he could picture was himself in a dark haired wig and cross dressed, it wasn't a good look for him. "I think we're going to need another teapot," he suggested.

Hitomi

Hitomi tried to bring Ryoga a cup of tea and was surprised not to find him on the roof, so, she searched the house and the closet. In case he'd gotten trapped in it, again, and out of concern got Ranma involved. "I think he left the house...on his own," she said with trepidation in her voice while she stared at the harmless pavement coated streets of Nerima as if they were an impassible jungle with hidden vicious animals and poisonous snakes.

Ranma frowned and also felt a bit of fear in her forming in her heart for her friend. He was used to Ryoga getting lost and then magically reappearing as if nothing had happened, but didn't like that Ryoga had left. "He could be anywhere by now, even Serbia . I hope he brought his winter clothes..." Ranma mused.

"Well, I'm not going to school until I've found him!" Hitomi declared and went to change out of her embarrassing uniform and on impulse went into Ranma's room and borrowed one of his Chinese outfits. She didn't like Akane's taste in clothes, either she seemed to wear clashing colours or wore outfits more suited to a small child. Hitomi's mom hadn't minded when she borrowed her clothes but thought she looked cute in them. Ranma's were clearly built for his male side but with lacing the drawstrings a little tighter and snugging to the belt to her own tiny waist, Hitomi managed to make them work.

Ranma halted to see Hitomi wearing his clothes and could see the undeniable family resemblance. "I hope you don't mind, Akane's clothes don't really do it for me..." she said sheepishly.

"Not at all, you look nice in my clothes," Ranma said.

This caused Hitomi to brighten even under the circumstances, "You say that in the future also," she said. "I would love to discuss this future, but I need to find Ryoga!" she said and leaped onto the nearest rooftop with little effort, she looked in surprise to find Ranma keeping up with her.

"I'm going to, pig breath is my friend too," Ranma growled and she felt her heart get lighter.

Several Teapots Later

Mousse had forgotten all about opening the café, even when people knocked angrily on the door to be denied their Chinese breakfast, Mousse just waved drunkenly back to them with a shit eating grin on his face. He was lucky that Cologne had gone to visit a friend and Shampoo had the morning off.

"I think they want you to let them in.." Ryoga slurred, his head drafting off to the side and then to the other side.

"Really I thought they were just being friendly and waving at us..." Mousse slurred back. "They can't come in anyway, we're out of 'tea,'" he pointed out.

"I think I've had enough anyway," Ryoga said. "When did you get a twin?" he asked, the two versions of his brand new best friend forever.

"Iz.. just me," he asked frowning through his thick glasses at the intoxicated martial artist. "So you think that Ranma's, Hitomi's mother?" he asked.

"I think she might be but can she..." he paused, blinking his eyes and shaking his head once," I mean... he have children?" Ryoga asked.

"Don't know, but she's kind of cute..." Mousse said, blushing lightly.

"I-I've never noticed," Ryoga stammered with a blush. "When did you notice?"

"I've got eyes; she's got a cute face and curves to spare. How sweet is her caboose!" Mousse said with his head weaving back and forth.

Ryoga's hand cupped as if holding it again and then put them away, ashamed that his hands had memorized her dimensions so well. "I-I guess," he replied. "I've never really looked at her that way..."

Mousse blew a raspberry, "Yet, you always believe her when she play acts being your girlfriend or fiancée!" he pointed out.

"Hey I didn't know it was her!" Ryoga protested.

"She's a short redhead and the only one we know given that there are few redheads around. Yet her in a pair of glasses and girl's clothes fools you. If you ask me you want to be fooled by her..." Mousse pointed out.

"What could that possibly achieve?" Ryoga snarled.

"You getting to spend time with her and getting closer to her female form. I think you kind of like the female Ranma!" Mousse said with a belch.

"You take that back!" Ryoga cried.

"I'm just saying what I see..." Mousse said in a confused sounding voice, wondering why his brand new best friend forever was yelling at him.

Ryoga turned and ran, trying to run away from what Mousse was implying and was suddenly lost... as usual... and drunk, unlike usual.

Mousse slumped forward on the table and lost consciousness.

Imagine Hitomi shock when she ran into Ryoga by accident. She stared at him and he seemed to think for a few seconds before speaking. "What is your name?" he demanded of her with a challenging look in his eye.

She backed away as his battle aura flared, "Hitomi Saotome..." she gasped.

"I saw your birthmark, I know you for what you actually are. Besides no one names children where a first name rhymes with their surname, that's just cruel!" he cried.

Hitomi sagged against the wall and then raised her eyes to lock with his "I'm Hitomi...Hibiki, and for your information you named your son Hideki Hibiki!" she cried back and then felt a little better when she saw a ghost of a smile flit across Ryoga's face. "I'm also your daughter... and Ranma Saotome's my mother," she almost whispered.

The shock that entered Ryoga was literally stunning, even in his dazed drunk state, he had enough wits to realize that he was possibly going to be the sickest man alive, the sickest man to actually try and have a child, no, not just a child, a family. All that he had spoken about with Mousse, revealed that the last possibly was true. He had gotten together with Ranma Saotome, the jerk amongst jerks and him had gotten together and his dreams of being married to Akane utterly shattered in his face. The world felt cold and lonely, and even if he had mended his friendship with Ranma, this information destroyed any chance of them ever being friends, because right now in his drunken state, he didn't want to be Ranma's anything.

Hitomi gulped a bit, this didn't seem to be going well, now she had wished she never said anything. Though her love for everyone made her spout future knowledge like a hose, the excitement of being around those she loved when they were all alive and well, it got to her. "Look... dad..."

"Don't call me that, damn it!" Ryoga shouted, wavering some more before shaking his head and gaining his balance. "How the hell did me and Ranma even get together! We're enemy's, how the hell do you get born!"

"Well you see..." Hitomi blushed.

"Uh... besides the obvious," Ryoga added.

Hitomi sighed contently, not really wanting to explain how sex worked to Ryoga, although, she was sure he knew what to do. So, the question did seem a bit off, "Do you really want the truth?"

"Out with it..." Ryoga said, groaning in annoyance.

Hitomi sighed, this is how she wanted to spend her time with her father. Him forcing her to explain where she came from and how her family came to be, instead of being subtle and changing the time line in a good way. Though, she hadn't vanished yet, that must have been a sign that things were still going well for her and her future, she only hoped that after this explanation that she'd still be standing the future was still intact. She trusted her father, even if, this was possibly her last day alive.

"Okay..." Hitomi said, tearing up a bit. "You two got together after mom's marriage with Akane failed, the two tried to run the dojo together. But the students that came wanted Ranma to teach them more, whenever Akane tried to teach, they saw she wasn't as good as Ranma and Akane had other interests too, so, as the days went by they kept trying to hold everything together, it was just too tough to get anything done with the problems they had with each other. Until Akane finally had enough and decided to leave Ranma and the dojo for awhile, she went off to a hotel and later on met with Daisuke again, they met at a park while Daisuke was caring for his dog, he called her over and they talked, eventually they found out they had more in common," Hitomi stated, looking towards Ryoga.

The lost boy's eyes had softened, "Why wasn't I there?"

"When Akane and Ranma finally got together and married, you were gone, you couldn't stand knowing you lost to mom and lost Akane to him was the worst wound you ever had, at least, that was until you wandered back into Nermia and Akane and Daisuke had gotten married. From there you and mom got together and chatted, now that Akane hadn't ended up to either f you, not to mention, while you were gone, I guess you just matured more than anyone would have done, but, mom said you were still lonely even with him as a friend, so, mom or Ranma as you know him..." Hitomi paused, watching as Ryoga cringed when hearing all this future information.

Hitomi tilted her head to the side and waited for Ryoga to give the okay, the lost boy nodded his head once and allowed her to continue. "Allowed you to stay in the dojo, and help him train the students, you didn't want to at first, but mom told you that it'd be better than being entirely alone, mom says that's what got you to loosen up, now both you and Ranma understood what it was like to really lose someone who you thought was close to you, so, one night you two started talking about how your life was going, then you..." Hitomi said, pointing at her father.

Ryoga's heart skipped a beat the moment those words entered his ears, he was the cause of her, it wasn't Ranma that brought her into a existence, but he himself, the one who was supposed to be the true warrior, the warrior who's path could not be tainted and perversed like Ranma's. Though apparently in the future he threw all that away in order to be with someone who wasn't even a woman, but, instead a man who seaked to do whatever it took to win, regardless of the conditions he needed to do.

"Wait! Don't think like that!" Hitomi cried, seeing that disgusted look on Ryoga's face. "Damn it don't you think that way about my mother!" Hitomi said, glaring at Ryoga. This had sparked another one of those moments where Hitomi couldn't stand to see her father show disrespect to her mother.

The lost boy leaned back, being torn away from his thoughts, a blush across his face.

"You're the one who wanted to be with mom, you were the one that suggested something more between you two, believe me, mom said she had a face just like the one you're making right now..." The Hibiki child shook her head and continued with her story. "You left when you felt even more depressed, even after everything you to had to go through to become friends again, because it wasn't easy for mom to open up to you, because you spent eight months mopping inside the dojo and helping around the house, then, because mom was too reserved you wanted to leave again, but that's when she thought about it and she realized that nothing would be the same anymore without you and she waited for you, as dumb as it seemed to her at the time, she stayed away from woman in order to give you a chance! She changed herself because you became special to her!" she panted, feeling winded from that long explanation.

What was Ryoga going to do with all this? The contemplation mixed with the amount of alcohol in his system only allowed him to think more irrationally than he usually did, so, he chose to cling to a false hope. His dreams of being with the blue haired Tendo.

From there he straighed his back and locked eyes with the black haired Hibiki daughter, "I reject..."

"H-huh?" Hitomi gasped, leaning back.

"You heard me!" Ryoga shouted with enough force that he closed his eyes. "I reject everything about you, I doubt care about Ranma and I'll hold onto Akane, I won't give up like the other me did!"

Then suddenly as if someone had hit Hitomi like an old television set, she seemed to have static come from here body and cover her form, like if she had been a TV that had either lost signal or had been disconnected. The feeling to her was unbearably painful, it felt as though her body was being torn apart, almost as if she couldn't breathe. The world was getting darker to her, all so dark, the world seeming to fade as she fought with as much will power as she could to keep her self from fading. Though why was she able to? Wasn't everything absolute when someone said something to change the future? It made no sense to her, but, even though it didn't finish her. She was glad that her last images of life were of her mother and father both alive.

Before Ryoga knew what was happening he saw that she fell, instantly he wanted to go over to her and comfort her, stop her from dying right there on the ground.

"Stay away from her!" Ranma shouted, having jumped off a roof and over to Hitomi.

"R-Ranma?" Ryoga gasped, blushing and hoping that the red headed girl hadn't heard what they were talking about.

"I heard what you said... guess I can't really call you my friend," Ranma stated, glaring at Ryoga then kneeling down to Hitomi. Though she wasn't as bad off as she saw her before she landed, but, it seemed that Hitomi was fading. "Hey, hey... come on, don't worry, snap out of this Hitomi, daddy is here..." Ranma said, trying to get some response from her.

The black haired child shook her head, "D-dad..." she said, weakly pointing towards Ryoga.

It seemed that Ryoga was having second thoughts on this, because tears fell freely from his eyes. Though he wiped them before Ranma could see, not that Ranma was paying any attention with how worried she looked as she took Hitomi into her hands. "Hitomi! Hitomi!" Ranma screamed, shaking the static looking girl. Ranma didn't know what to do, there she was, a girl that was destined to be his child, dying in front of her.

"Ryoga! She's getting weaker... I can feel her aura, it's dying..." Ranma said, panic filling her tone. The red headed girl moved her head away and rose her free hand to slam her closed fist into the ground, trying to stop herself from crying. That's when she turned to Ryoga and glared at him, baring her own fangs as she stared him down. "Whaddya' do to her, huh!" Ranma cried, running over to Ryoga and landing a blow to his cheek.

The lost boy only recoiled back and turned his head back to Ranma as she stared at him, waiting. "Huh? You probably did something big and now her future's suffering! Haven't you seen any of those TV shows when it comes to time travelers!" she demanded, feeling stupid for saying what she said, but it didn't matter to her right now, she was possibly losing a great future with great children all because Ryoga had to open his big fat mouth and probably rejected being Ranma's friend in the future, in turn Ryoga must have helped them out so much by that time that Ryoga must have been a key factor in getting Hitomi into existence.

Timid... was the simplest way to describe Ryoga's image, because in order for this girl to continue existing. That meant that Ryoga would have to accept his fate and try and gain Ranma's affection, but was the idea so bad? Hitomi was amazing, she was smart, focused, cheerful, but she also had a flare that resembled Ranma's and strength which almost matched his. Not to mention they all taught her good lessons on how to live her life, who was he to stand in the way of that... did he want to stand in the way of that? Was Ranma all that bad? Since Hitomi turned out so well, didn't that mean Ranma played the part of mother and sometimes father perfectly? The lost boy gritted his teeth as he could feel her about to fade. So, he did the only thing that he could think of, accept that he was possibly going to be with Ranma and embraced her.

"W-what're you doing!" Ranma demanded, trying to free herself from the man who had possibly killed her future.

"I don't reject..." Ryoga whispered, his head lowered and his hair casting a shadow over his eyes as a single tear ran down his cheek.

"Ryo-" Ranma was going to shout, until she turned her head in Hitomi's direction, in order to see that the static that had been killing her was slowly leaving her body.

Ranma smiled and wiped a tear from her eye, "Damn... wha-what did you do?" she asked, turning back to Ryoga.

"I accepted that I care about you as a friend..." he lied. Right now, the idea might seem too insane for Ranma. Though he made sure to have a chat with Hitomi again, this time without being so drunk and more accepting of the future with him and Ranma as a family. From there, Ryoga moved away from Ranma and turned to Hitomi, and was more at ease to see that her breathing had returned to normal. That alone was enough to make his lips to twitch into a smile.

"So... I guess you're a really good friend to the family, huh?" Ranma said, placing a hand behind her head. To think that Ryoga played such a big part in her daughter's existence was a little baffling, which of course made her confused but that was normal when it came to time travelers.

**Cat Cafe**

Shampoo returned to find that the restaurant shut and Mousse passed out on the table with lots of teapots scattered about on top of it. She sniffed a teapot and recoiled when she smelled sake. Putting two and two together she raised her hand to slap the drunken hidden martial artist awake and then lowered her hand. Instead she gently shook his shoulders. "Huh?" he said, revealing the fact that he'd been drooling in his sleep.

"Silly Mousse, what is great-grandmother catch you drinking on job?" she said.

"Ryoga was here and I didn't want him to drink alone, he seemed upset..." he said.

"So you help him drink, such nice friend..." she said sarcastically. "Where he now?" she asked.

"Why he's just over there..." Mousse said and opened his eyes wide to find him gone.

"Yes you let drunken Ryoga run around Nerima by himself. No good, wonder if he likes Spain? " she asked him.

"I-I-I have to go find him!" he said frantically and wobbled to his feet.

Shampoo easily caught him when he stumbled, "No, only place you go is bed," she chided. "I tell great-grandmother that we no open today because we have twenty four hour virus," she said steering him firmly towards his bedroom. She turned her back while he changed into sleep pants, though listened intently for the sound of fabric sliding off, this caused her to blush. Then she helped him remove his weapons from his shirt which included: a pie, a pair of clean dress shoes, a bell, two cans of cling peaches, a rubber chicken, a pair of boxers, a bicycle, a boom box, a red bikini... finally the army tank she drove, wearing the army helmet she'd found and parked in the corner of his room and wiped her face after the strenuous work. Mousse lay back in bed wearing just a pair of black pajama pants, "I feel like I'm going to be sick..." he said watching the room spin.

Shampoo knelt beside his futon and pushed his garbage can beside his futon, "You need to barf? You use this," she said.

"Thanks," he said and on impulse drew her into his arms for a hug. "Thanks Shampoo, you're the best friend I've ever had," he said in a tired voice.

Shampoo's cheeks flamed to be pressed against his solid chest but she hugged him back, on impulse she kissed him quickly on the lips and stroked his cheek, "You my best friend too, now must go find Ryoga and take him back to Ranma," she said.

"Yes, you go. I love you Shampoo," he called after her and hugged into his pillows with a groan.

For once him saying this made her feel glad and pink stained the tops of her cheeks while she guided her bicycle over the rooftops of Nerima looking for the suddenly popular lost boy.

**Meanwhile in the Future**

Ranma surveyed the room and allowed herself a slight smile at the sight of her friends and family stuffing their faces and laughing companionably. If it wasn't so soon after a funeral and Hitomi missing, she'd have sworn it was a party while the twins sparred for the final egg roll until a laughing Shampoo assured them that there were plenty in the van, while Ivy fed a blushing Juro off her own plate. They'd learn that when catering for the Hibiki's, bring twice as much. Cologne's screen had gone dead because she was winging her way to Nerima with her husband Phil and trunks full of Amazonian spells in tow. Ranma wondered faintly if she would be stopped at the border again until it was proven that she wasn't a terrorist.

Ranma would turn on some music to elevate the oppressive atmosphere and make everyone feel a little happier, she told herself that Hitomi was a quick learner and would know not to screw up the time lines, but could she trust her own self not to. Ranma would loath to admit it, but she sometimes looked back on herself and thought it had been a bit of a bit... stubborn. She'd been quick to temper. Akane still called her baka sometimes in a teasing way when she was being mule headed. She smiled when Kung Foo fighting came on. Ryoga and her used to do play sparring skit to it, that amused the kids when they were younger. She couldn't resist starting that skit now and smiled when Hideki, Hideo and Juro joined in moving in time with her. She found herself laughing when Happosai joined in, having remembered the goofy dance until all the martial artists were bouncing around like balls while Mousse, Ivy and Shampoo clapped in time. Ranma executed a final bow and turned laughing she gasped when all her children and even Ivy collapsed in a heap and started to moan. She ran to them calling their names and gasped when the edges of them started to blur, tears rolled down her face as she held onto them tightly as if to keep them with her. She didn't know that she was begging Ryoga to come and help them. They were crying out with pain and shock and clung to their mother like they were much younger. She looked frantically at Shampoo and Mousse, her Amazon's as she liked to think of them, who were both familiar with secrets of Chinese magic and were the ones she normally turned to at times like this. She saw with fear in her heart that Ivy was going through the same thing and knew that Hitomi had done something to alter their future. Mouse and Shampoo were holding onto their daughter and seemed to be chanting something. An inane thought occurred to Ranma that Hitomi was going to be grounded for a month as soon as she came back... if she came back. "Please gods don't take my children!" she begged, "I'll try to be a better person; I won't tease my father; I'll never dodge doing housework again and fob it off on them; I even promise to stop eating all the ice cream myself!" she cried at the sky. Then the children in her arms went limp when their pain dissipated and sagged on the floor against her. She exchanged worried looks with Shampoo. "I don't know what you were saying, but it seemed to have worked..." she said in relief, cradling each dear head against her.

"Mousse and I just asked Ivy to stay with us in Mandarin..." she said. "It wasn't anything magical. I think that someone else mended the timeline,"

Akane gaped at the scene; she and Daisuke had come over because they were finding their memories altering to include a young dark haired Ranma look-alike and decided to seek out Ranma. They both knew from experience if weird things were happening that it had something to do with Ranma. So they came to find her. They'd been knocking at the door and could hear cries coming from inside. Growing concerned, Akane had used the key that Ranma had given her to use for emergencies and ran inside to find all the children collapsed on the floor and their friends sobbing with relief, if they had been able to see their two sons who living in another town, they would have understood the scene.

"What happened?" Akane asked as she checked their vital signs to find them to be just fine.

"We almost lost them" Ranma said with a tear streaked face. "It's Hitomi, she's screwing with the past," and explained what had happened. She was surprised by how calm they seemed to take it and complimented them on it.

"With you as her mother, nothing about Hitomi surprises us," Akane explained.

"Now we're staying to help." she said with resolve in her voice. Daisuke didn't say a thing but removed his coat in support of his wife's decision. Ranma could feel her grateful tears starting again and hugged them both. She couldn't help laughing when Akane's stomach growled.

"We didn't have any dinner..." she said with a blush.

"We set up a huge buffet in the kitchen, go help yourself," Shampoo suggested.

Akane looked at her husband "I could eat," Daisuke said leading her into the kitchen.

Akane leaned against the counter while he filled out two plates with what he knew to be her favourites. "How could Hitomi possibly change things?" she asked him.

"A simple twist of fate brought us together, what if you were still with Ranma or I hadn't been in the park with my dog that night? We could be married to completely different people and we would never have existed," Daisuke said, a serious look on his face. "The same could be said of any of the couples we know, I think we should help Ranma get Hitomi back here in anyway we can," the second he said that he stared out in front of him and narrowed his eyes slightly; knowing to take situations like this in the most serious manners. "All of us worked so hard to achieve the relationships that we have now and our children deserve to have a life," he finished.

Akane turned to him and only had to nod that she was fully in support of his ideas. She knew Hitomi to be a bright capable young woman, so why was she so nervous?

"So that's why we never had any ice cream after you had just bought some?" Hideki said when he had recovered from his ordeal. Her other two children turned to stare at her and Ranma just looked sheepish.

**The Past**

Ryoga watched Hitomi as she lay on the futon that he put her on. She seemed to be sleeping calmly now and her breathing was untroubled. She stirred slightly and then opened her hypnotic blue eyes. "Dad?" she said, this revealed the fang teeth that he could no longer deny were from his side of the family. He searched for other family traits she'd gotten from him and found them; her eyes were the shape of his and her skin tone was closer to his light tan then Ranma's alabaster. Looking at her he thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, not just because she was simply attractive, but what she would be to him.

"I'm here Hitomi..." he said feeling calmer about his future now. He wasn't sure that he could accept Ranma so easily as his wife, but wanted Hitomi to be his daughter. In the short time he'd known her she'd become dear to him. It was like he'd known her so long that it was like she could see into his soul and liked what she saw there. He wanted to raise this child; he wanted to be there for her every step of the way on her way to adulthood. He frowned when he realized that boys his present age would be attracted to her in the future and vowed to keep an eye on those perverts. They wouldn't try to fool with Ryoga Hibiki's little girl.

"Sorry I shouldn't have called you Dad, Ryoga..." she said humbly.

"I'll tell you what; you can call me that when we're alone together," Ryoga said, in a gentle voice. "Hitomi I've been thinking... I want you to be born, so, I am going to accept my fate and promise to do whatever it takes to get your mother to marry me," he vowed.

"Ryoga that's so wonderful!" she said hugging him and Ryoga smiled into her happy face and realized how much she looked like her mother. Her mother that he had always been secretly attracted to since he'd met her girl side.

"I'll help you in anyway I can," Hitomi suggested. "I know everything about her!" she exclaimed.

"Okay," Ryoga said, pulling back from the hug, "but we can't let Ranma know she's your mother or she's going to be completely resistant to the idea."

Hitomi nodded her head in understanding as she saw that her father had a completely understanding look.

"It's just between us for now until the time is right," Ryoga said.

Hitomi brightened; he was already starting to sound like the wise father she'd known in the future, "Count me in Dad!" she said and gave him another hug, which he gladly returned.

**Ranma**

The red headed girl wondered if this tea that Ranma had gotten for Hitomi would actually do anything, she didn't know much about bodies that were being attacked by a factor known as time. Though, she did know that it must have effected her mind and body and this tea was supposed to revitalize her mind and body. Though while she was making her way back to the Tendo's, she drifted off into her thoughts again. How could Ryoga had been so important? Was he the reason he and Akane got together? If that was true... why hadn't her feelings really matured for Akane? It was all the same, there had to be a way to drive the romance between her and Akane, but, why didn't she have the drive necessary to jump start the future? Maybe now was the time where she'd have to build on her friendship with Ryoga, besides, things were much too chaotic at the moment and Ranma figured that maybe the feelings were destined to evolve between them. There was no need to rush them, her laid back thought pattern must have proved that time would mend it's self. So, she'd stick with just trying to enjoy as much as her life with her good friend Ryoga.

Ranma stopped to blush, her heart rate raising and causing her breath to get caught short. "U-uh... something must be going around, cause I gotta' be outta' it," Ranma said, trying to reason with herself. She had just gone through something very life threatening, so, maybe she was too tense for comfort and a possible illness was effecting her.

As she was making her way home, she felt a tensed up aura coming towards her at an alarming speed, and looked over her shoulder to see that Shampoo was peddling towards her like mad. "Ah man..." Ranma groaned.

"Ranma!" Shampoo shouted, landing on the ground with her bike.

Ranma held the bag of medicinal tea close, "Look, I don't have any time for your... you-ness, Shampoo, Hitomi isn't doing so well, so, I'm getting her this medicine while Ryoga's taking care of her," Ranma explained, hoping that'd at least keep her from going into insane love warrior mode.

"Oh..." Shampoo paused, before shaking her head. "No! Shampoo only want see Hitomi!"

"Wow... you're already attached to her?" Ranma said, raising a brow as she saw that maybe there was something really special about this girl, well, she was related to her.

"Yes, Shampoo no think she bad..." Shampoo responded, nodding her head. "Shampoo come with?"

Ranma looked to the side before shrugging her head and gesturing with her hand for Shampoo to follow.

The moment Ranma and Shampoo entered the house, they had to be assualted by a crying Soun and worrying Genma, Sound because the symbol of Akane's and Ranma's successful marriage had almost died today. Though Soun had made sure that once Ryoga was out in the clear that he'd give him a massive scolding about ending someone's life from the future, of course itwas a difficult subject to approach but he made sure that Ryoga would understand. Too bad it meant that Ryoga would have to stay around longer, he wasn't entirely sure if Ryoga had completely forsaken his love for his daughter.

Now Ranma and Shampoo were making their way over to Hitomi, not even sure if Hitomi had woken up yet, but they at least had to make sure she was still breathing; if only to bring them comfort in this time. Shampoo knew from Ranma having explained the situation to her before they got to the house, though, Shampoo said nothing when it came to her intentions, instead she used an excuse as to visit them and not to do a thing, it was shocking that Shampoo wanted nothing but to visit and then got caught up in seeing if Hitomi had recovered from becoming a strange blur, due to Ryoga's rash actions of rejecting a role as being Ranma's friend.

When they entered the hall to Hitomi's room, they saw that Ryoga was exciting with a somewhat confused on his face, al most as if he were struggling to figure out a tough situation. "Oh..." Ryoga opened his eyes, stopping, "hey," he said, blinking a few times.

"So... how's she doing?" Ranma asked.

"She's doing better, she's actually awake," Ryoga replied, sighing in relief.

"Then I'm going to see her..." Ranma got as far as saying before Shampoo placed her arm in front of Ranma, halting her from going any further.

"Shampoo want go see her," The purple haired Amazon said.

"Hey! She's actually my kid!" Ranma exclaimed.

"Ranma, lets her... I have to talk to you anyways," Ryoga said, moving over and grabbing Ranma's hand. He saw that the red headed girl wanted to see her own daughter, but, right now it was important for them to talk, since he had set up some sort of plan with Hitomi to get Ranma to fall for him, which would easily be the most difficult thing he'd ever have to do, because of his lack of experience, but maybe he just had to approach this gently and not think of Ranma as a girl.

"Argh..." Ranma groaned, "fine."

Shampoo smiled before entering the room with a relaxing Hitomi. The black haired girl smiled and waved, showing off her cute little fangs, "Hey Auntie Shampoo..." she said.

Shampoo's eyes widened when she was able to confirm Hitomi's relation to Ryoga, now that she knew who was the actual father, she saw a surprsing amount of things that linked them together. Not only that, but Akane technically didn't win the contest of who got Ranma, not that she cared about that anymore, now that she had taken the time to consider Mousse's emotions. "You is too, too much like Ryoga..."

The Hibiki child raised her hand and clasped it over her mouth, giggling slightly, "Yeah, so I hear."

"So, you tell Shampoo that you know about Shampoo's future?" she asked.

"Oh... I think it'd be better if I showed you what you're family is gonna' look like," she replied, drawing out a small black wallet and pulling out a small wallet sized photo of Shampoo being held by Mousse, leaning in closely as she saw that she had gotten a bit taller, along with an even dare she say... more stunning older version of Mousse? And had he taken off his glasses in that photo? Though what caught her eyes the most where her sons.

"Who dat one?" Shampoo asked, pointing at the short black haired boy with raspberry colored eyes, much like Shampoo's.

"That's your son, Conditioner," Hitomi replied, smiling. "He's a little easily excitable."

Shampoo smiled and then pointed to the boy next to him, this one was standing with the peace sign and rubbing the back of his neck. "And dis one?" she asked, now pointing to a picture of a boy with long purple hair and green eyes, over his eyes were a fine set of glasses, which didn't make him seem silly like his father used to, but, instead they were very classy looking, the kind Shampoo wished she could get for Mousse.

"That's Gel," Hitomi said. "He's really smart, actually, a little smarter than me," Hitomi confessed.

Then Shampoo looked at the final child in the photo and saw that it was a girl, she was stunning to say the least.

"Oh, and that's Ivy," Hitomi finished. "She's kinda' like a sister, cause she's dating my older brother Juro."

"Maybe... maybe Mousse not so bad," Shampoo said.

"I told you," Hitomi said, feeling glad that she was able to inspire Shampoo's love for Mousse a little further. "You should know that you two live very well, your chain of Neko Haten's are really famous, even in the U.S you sell like crazy, and we never thought you'd get that far, but with you and Mousse running everything, it all goes well, not to mention you two travel everywhere you get the chance to go, but mostly during summer vacation, cause your kids still go to school. Though you guys sometimes invite us along, but dad always has to stay close to mom or we could lose him, but, it's cute how they look together all the time."

Shampoo smiled, "Shampoo... Shampoo no longer chase Ranma, instead, Shampoo help Hitomi with getting Ranma and Ryoga to make babies!"

Hitomi blushed a bit, the way Shampoo had phrased it, it was rather suggestive, but, that was thew process of them having a family, "Guess you can say that... but how would we even do that?"

"Double date!" Shampoo exclaimed, smiling.

"Wait... a double date?" Hitomi said, smiling and nodding her head. She had just formulated the best plan she could possibly think of, but she had to make sure something was going to happen. "Tell me, is anything like a fair or a festival coming or happening today?"

Shampoo paused and considered it, then she smiled and remembered that one was happening not too far away from Nermia. "Hi!" she replied, nodding her head. From there, Hitomi gritted her teeth and managed to stand up, from there she opened the door to her room and smiled as she saw Ranma and Ryoga talking.

"Don't worry, I'l sure she'll-" Ryoga stopped and turned to Hitomi as he heard her open the room door.

"Wow... you're okay!" Ranma exclaimed, smiling brightly.

-line-

Please share your thoughts with us.


	6. Chapter 6

DaisukiFox: I Guess writing an Author's note with Siddy will have to wait. Though I'll try and say a little... this has been rather interesting to do and I can honestly say I'm enjoying this chapter. And the reason we took so long to post this was because I was finishing up Ranma's Boyfriend ch9. So, that's the reason for the delay in this little story. Though we're back up to speed and ready to post more! Also... look out for one of our new projects we're gonna' be doing!

Summary: Ryoga has been cursed to become a woman and the conditions are that he must sleep with a man till completion... it gets to the point where Ryoga ends up begging for Ranma's help... but there's a problem. Ryoga's pregnant? Possible oneshot and possibly rated M.

Disclaimer:We don't own Ranma! We tried but were kicked off the premise for trying to steal the rights...

Insert epic pout here!

-line-

Mouse and Shampoo had convinced Ranma that going to the circus was the best option, though Ranma found it weird that they'd do this so shortly after Hitomi had recovered and then not invite her to join them. Ranma figured that it must have to do with bonding time. Though once she thought about, they'd have plenty of time for that and then some. What really caught Ranma's attention, was that she could use her martial arts skills to win prizes. Sometimes expensive prizes were given at these things, Ranma knew that most of them were probably ragged, but even then, Ranma was a step ahead of the average circus game player.

"Ranma I so glad you agreed to come with us, Mousse and I love the circus!" Shampoo said holding onto Mousse's arm in a way that confused the boy and caused him to blush.

"Well, I'm not enamored with them after working in one. Do you realize how much work has to be done in order to create this illusion of grandeur? Truly, the hours are long and it's grueling to have to pack all this up in one short day to transport it to another place to put it all up again and..." Mousse said and then was silenced with a glare from Shampoo.

"Mousse and I _both _love the circus," she said firmly.

"Of course, what she said..." he said sheepishly, pointing at a smirking Shampoo.

"I don't see why I have to be a girl!" Ranma complained again, adding a pout.

"People see four people together, they think double date. You want people think you and Ryoga couple?" Shampoo asked her sweetly.

Ranma tried to picture himself as a guy eating pink swirling cotton candy and going on rides with Ryoga, clearly Shampoo and Mousse seemed to be together... which was weird. "I see your point," she said.

"Good, oh look Mousse, Ferris wheel! I want to go on. Ranma, Ryoga, it okay if we meet you at one by big top?" she asked them.

"I have no problem with that," Ryoga said.

"One? but its only eleven now, that's a few hours from now!" Ranma protested.

"We have free ride pass from Mousse's carnie friend. We want to go on lots of rides!" Shampoo called over her shoulder as she hustled Mousse away in a death grip.

"Why didn't they get us a pass too? What are we going to do for two hours?" Ranma asked, kicking a pebble in irritation.

Ryoga just smiled and brought her over to the food tent. "Hungry?" he asked her and watched her eyes light up like a pinball game. He knew her weakness was circus food and could practically see her mind bouncing her choices between pogo sticks, popcorn, pizza slices, funnel cakes and cotton candy. Ranma was ripe with choices until she deflated a little...no money. "No thanks. I had a big breakfast," she said.

Ryoga pulled out a fat wallet and smirked. "My treat... you can have anything you want," he said and then Ranma became a blur as she dragged him forward; the small contact made Ryoga blush.

Hitomi had borrowed a blonde wig and sunglasses from Nabiki's 'stalker' attire to follow them; she grinned when she saw her mother take her father's arm.

When the two had arrived, they noticed that strange guys were eyeing Ranma. Ryoga smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder, he leaned down to her ear and whispered, "Play along..."

Ranma's eyes widened and she smirked; this was certainly a way to use her female form to her advantage. She leaned over to Ryoga and wrapped her arms around him, bringing him close. "Gee Ryoga... it sure is nice having you here with me," Ranma cooed. The two strangers saw that Ranma was probably already taken and lost interest. Ryoga had intended for that to benefit him, instead it only caused his nose to bleed. He hadn't exactly been the ladies man that Hitomi made him out to be, but maybe that didn't apply to Ranma. He wasn't sure his relationship when it came to Ranma, such a mystery, but certainly interesting.

Ranma had leaned down with her hands at the counter and turned to Ryoga while grinning. "Thanks Ryoga!" she exclaimed and scanned the menu with delight as she saw all the varieties. Though something came to her mind, she should probably let Ryoga choose something first. When she turned to see what the lost boy wanted, she saw that Ryoga's nose was bleeding ever so slightly. This caused Ranma to snicker a little. "Aww... did I do that?" Ranma asked innocently, blinking her eyes and placing her finger on her bottom lip.

Ryoga's eyes widened and he shook his head, "J-just order something and stop looking at me like that..." Ryoga commented, already annoyed with the red headed girl.

"Oh come on, I'm just messing with you pal," Ranma stated, patting his shoulder. "Besides, who could blame you?" Ranma asked, smirking and pointing to herself with her thumb. "When you look this good as a girl, it's natural to get like that," Ranma commented.

Ryoga took a second to register what she said, so, she at least admitted that she was an attractive female when she wanted to be. "Hehe..." Ryoga chuckled and nodded his head. "I'd have to agree with you on that, you're not bad looking as a girl," Ryoga added, trying to get used to be this friendly around Ranma, which was going smoothly at the moment.

"I bet you'd look good with a girl side too..." Ranma said, catching the lost boy blushing.

"Do you wanna' order or what?" Ryoga gruffly asked, not wanting to go back to his terrible imagination land.

Ranma nodded before raising her hand and getting the food tent attendant to give her a huge order, such as, octopus puffs, sweets, ice cream, chicken, hot dogs, funnel cakes.

All the lost boy ordered was some chili fries and a soft drink. As time went on and Ranma stopped impressing the people with her amazing eating ability, the lost boy stared at Ranma and smiled slightly. To believe that they could even have a child, well right now it seemed down right silly.

Ranma noticed from the corner of her eye that Ryoga had been looking at her. "Hey, something on your mind, Ryoga?" she asked, picking up another puff and popping it into her mouth.

"Huh?" the lost boy said, "Oh... nothing, I guess you can say I'm still thinking about the future and my future wife," Ryoga added.

Ranma flinched for a second and shook her head, "you really shouldn't be thinking about those things right now," Ranma said, nodding her head with her eyes closed. "Try and live at the moment, okay?" she asked, her tone was somewhat defensive.

"Yeah... you're probably right, Saotome," Ryoga nodded, taking another sip of his drink and staring off into space. This hadn't really done anything for them, he was completely clueless when it came to approaching the subject of them getting together and possibly being something more. Though was this scene really at all romantic? They were at a food stand where dozens of people were passing by and could stick their nose into other people's business.

"You know... this is kinda' nice," Ranma stated, placing her chin in her hands as she leaned forward on the counter.

"What is?" Ryoga asked, bringing his focus back to Ranma.

"That we can hang around each other without fighting all the time," Ranma said, clarifying.

"I guess so..." Ryoga replied. "Whenever I'd think of you, I'd feel like killing you and finally being with Akane," he said, noticing a sad look on Ranma's face. The lost boy thought quickly and said the first thing that came to mind, "But now I'd risk my life for you!" he gasped out.

Ranma's eyes went wide, that certainly wasn't all too a friendly statement. That had been more than anything a friend could ever say to another friend, unless they were brothers, which they weren't. The red headed girl turned her head to him, "What do you mean by that...?" she asked, raising a eyebrow and all while blushing ever so slightly. The look in Ranma's eyes weren't really curious, but, suspicious.

"S-sorry! I'm not used to having friends; I just said the first thing that came to mind!" Ryoga stammered.

"Oh..." Ranma said, averting her eyes from him and considering what he'd said. Why had it affected her so much? It didn't make any sense to her. Maybe it was all the food getting to her? This place had great tasting food, but, she concluded that some of the food probably didn't meet serving standards.

Ryoga sighed contently when he saw that Ranma wasn't focused on him anymore. He checked his wallet and saw that he still had a very huge amount of money left over, regardless of the fact that Ranma had eaten everything that came on the menu.

"Would you like a sundae for dessert?" he asked her.

"Sure I would!" she exclaimed and ordered two snow cones, a banana split, a parfait and three dove bars...all for herself. Ryoga himself just had a plain vanilla ice cream cone.

Sasha was getting foot sore, 'find the cutest couple at the fair, my ass. Make sure they have sex appeal' she thought in irritation and wished she hadn't worn five inch high heel shoes. She'd seen enough pimply faced teenagers to last a lifetime. She cursed the owner of the circus with his cheap publicity stunts and glanced around again. There were plenty of cute teenagers, but they weren't 'special' enough according to the owner when she'd submitted the surreptitious photos she'd taken of them on her cell phone to him. She turned when she saw a flash of red hair and wondered if it was real. The hair framed a face that was beyond cute and boasted the prettiest eyes Sasha had ever seen. The fox coloured lashes winked as she daintily ate an ice cream and gazed into the eyes of the man who had to have been her boyfriend. Sasha focused her attention on him, after making a point to remember to mention to the maintenance workers to have them clean the tables more regularly, there were far too many empty ice cream containers on their table. The boy had a strong masculine face that was still rather child-like in appearance with smooth baby cheeks. His body however spoke otherwise; he was powerfully built with enough visible muscles make a romance novel reader drool. Sasha suddenly realized that she'd found what she was looking for, cute and sexy; they were ideal. Of course their clothes weren't great by any means, but dressed up they'd be a pair of knock outs. She carefully took their photo and forwarded it to her boss.

A second later she received a text message, 'they're the ones, make sure they don't leave.'

She watched them as they got up, it made her heart glad to see they took the time to throw all the empty wrappers in the trash. She stayed behind them to make sure they didn't leave the fair before the entertainment began; using her cell she called the big top to set the events in motion.

The clowns were the very image of all that is silly and odd, the very mention of their names sent small awkward little boys in a fearful run. Though these clowns were worthy of scaring anybody, because they came with a purpose, a purpose to hunt down the attractive assumed couple. They'd scouted the area in search of a cute red head and tall black haired boy wearing yellow clothing. So far Sasha, (who had given them the description of the couple) had lost track of them and they were now waiting for any sight of them.

Ranma and Ryoga had finished riding the largest roller coaster and were now on their way to buy more cotton candy.

"I have no idea where your able to put all that food away..." Ryoga commented, raising an eyebrow as Ranma was happily eating.

"Huh... guess I have a fast metabolism or somethin'," she replied, tearing a piece to stuff in her mouth. She then tore a piece off of it and turned to Ryoga. "Want some?"

The lost boy blushed a bit and knew this would be a good moment to try something, so he leaned down and caught the piece with him mouth. If anyone was watching, they'd think that the two were a couple and Ranma was the girlfriend that had handfed her boyfriend.

The action caught Ranma off, so she turned away, blushing with a pouting look. "Ya' didn't have to eat it like that..."

"Oh... sorry, I'm used to being fed that way," he replied, looking to the side. This is why he didn't like becoming P-chan; some of the animal mannerisms would sometimes pop up at random moments; at least that's what he'd blame them on for the moment. By the way Ranma gasped in realization, he knew that she'd gotten the picture.

"Forgot you change into a pig..." Ranma commented, chuckling nervously. "Didn't mean to bring that up pal."

"It's okay Ranma," Ryoga replied, smiling. This was certainly a first, Ranma apologizing for him mentioning his pig curse, usually Ranma would take complete advantage of that and mock him for as much as he could, until she ran out of pig puns that is. "Sir..." one deep voiced clown said, hiding behind a food stand while talking into his cell phone."I've found the targets; send all other clown personnel over to the corn dog stand close to the speed demon roller coaster!"

"So... how long do you think you're gonna' stay for?" Ranma asked, throwing her cotton candy cone away.

"Not sure... as long as I need to, I guess," Ryoga stated.

"Well, if you're staying for a while you could keep Ukyo and Kodachi off my back and we can hang out," she stated, smiling and then raising her hands to make it look as though she was sparring with the air. "And maybe spar a couple of rounds, huh?"

Ryoga chuckled and nodded his head, keeping his hands in his pockets. "Sure, but right now let's get some more ride tickets, Saotome."

"Aw come on..." Ranma said, rolling her eyes. "Call me Ranma! The only other time you actually call me by my name is when you're trying to kill me, would it kill ya' to say it now that we're actually friends?"

The lost boy pondered this for a moment, he'd called Ranma by his name a few other times, but Saotome was more common for him. "I guess so... Ranma."

The two exchanged pleasant smiles. That was until four clowns jumped straight out of nowhere with confetti and blowing horns loud enough to hurt the sensitively trained ears of a martial artist.

"You've won! You've won!" they all shouted in unison.

"Wait wha?" Ranma screamed, struggling as the clowns were pushing her and Ryoga somewhere.

"Wait!' Ryoga tried to say, but the clowns persistently kept pushing them in some strange direction.

The clowns continued to push and shove Ranma and Ryoga in the direction of the big top. They hadn't even noticed that they were being pushed into a crowed area where everyone was eagerly awaiting the new couple of the circus to be crowned. The former couple's time had already expired and it had been time to choose a new one, everyone felt that there should be a couple crowned with that in order to keep people coming, if only to see an attractive girl or a handsome guy. It had been a tradition and the traditions of course came with benefits to the couple.

There was a mustached man standing at the center of the stage, dressed in a purple tux shirt with black tux pants and a black top hat. "Hello everybody!" he greeted; striking an over the top pose and pointing at the crowd pose while speaking into his mike.

The crowd responded with an uproar of cheers, of people demanding the new couple be displayed to them. "Are you ready to have your new couple?" he asked, once again hearing the uproar caused the stage to shake a bit. "Well here they are!"

From there he gestured to the clowns pushing and shoving Ranma and Ryoga to the stage, while they screamed for the clowns to stop. They turned their heads to everyone and waved awkwardly.

"As you can tell they're deeply in love and extremely good looking! Real feast for the eyes; a boy with a charming face and a smoking hot vixen which could make any man into heaping pile of stupid!" Everyone cheered him on as Ranma and Ryoga blushed. "They've accepted this honor and nothing is going to stop them from being these weeks crowned couple of the Red Seven Hearts!" with that being said, a large playing card with the number seven on it and seven red hearts came up behind them.

Ranma glared and stomped over to the announcer and pulled him by his collar to face him with an angry stare, her cheeks still tinged with red. "Look pal I don't know who you are and why you had a bunch of clowns drag us half across the place but we're not gonna' be the couple of this circus because we're not even dat-"

"Please!" The announcer pleaded, "Just pretend to be! I'll lose my job and you two the best looking possible couple we've seen..."

"That ain't happening bu-" Ranma was whispering in a threatening voice.

"You'll get free rides passes, all you can eat and drink anytime our circus is open..." he said, clasping his hands together and looking at Ranma with a desperate look. He hadn't even noticed the gleam in Ranma's eye when she'd heard the offer. She thought she'd be stuck with some stupid task that people did for free, but that it came with benefits and those benefits involved free ride passes and all you could get food, was almost like a dream come true.

"Can we take some food in boxes with us...?" Ranma asked, not looking as intense as before.

"Sure! I'll even allow that..." the announcer said, blinking as he saw that she actually seemed like she was gonna' go through with it. This scene of course didn't go unnoticed by the crowd. They watched as Ranma released the man and ran over to Ryoga, wrapping her arms around one of his.

"Ryoga I love you!" she exclaimed, grinning brightly and allowing herself to display a cute face.

The crowd's spirits rose and they cheered once more, some hollering and some cheering and some asking for Ranma's phone number and some girls asking for Ryoga's. All the attention was bound to make them look like a good couple; it was only natural to assume they were attractive... since even some blind girl's wanted to get together with Ryoga.

"Ya' gotta' agree to do this Ryoga..." Ranma said, leaning close to him and whispering. "We can score free food here anytime we want and ride any ride we want!"

Ryoga was course going to take the chance when it came, looking like he was with Ranma, which had been his entire goal. Though he was a bit shy when it came to being around other people and letting them see public displays of affections. "R-Ranma..." with that he turned her to face him and locked eyes with her, blushing a darker side of red than before. "I love you."

Ranma only blinked while her own eyes widened. "Way to sell it pal..."

Ryoga lowered his head, since Ranma hadn't taken it the way he'd expected her to. She was too busy smiling and then waving to the crowd as they gave a big aw to Ryoga's declaration of love. _'How can someone this dense be my wife...' _Ryoga thought.

Now that the ringmaster was safe from being mauled by some powerful; yet fair looking lady, he turned to the crowd once more. "Now what's say we get them into their royal clothing!" he said, causing both Ranma's and Ryoga's eyes to bug out as they wondered what they were going be wearing. They were once again escorted by the group of SWAT clowns that seemingly appeared from behind the curtains and dragged them to prepare their costumes.

**Shampoo and Mousse**

Mousse couldn't help smiling at how excited Shampoo was to be at the circus as their car swooped through the air. The warm air blew her long hair onto his arm and this caused him to shiver.

"You seem happy..." he commented.

"I am happy because I love Japan . If felt weird when I first got here and now it feels like home to me," she said.

"But what about China ?" he asked.

" China always be first home but so different here. Little girls...and little boys can be whatever they want. When first got here I thought Japanese girls foolish and weak, yet they not. They hold down full time job just like man and still have family. It not bad life," she said, peeking at him to see if he understood what she was saying. She found herself marveling how handsome he'd become.

"But that's not the way we were brought up!" Mousse protested.

"Yes. But not so weird... just different. Great-grandmother plans to marry and move to America . She ask if I want restaurant and I think I do. I think we sit on gold mine if learn how to run it properly. Restaurant always busy, why not open few other restaurants, or catering for Chinese wedding? Why not establish own banquet hall and host special events? All we have to do is invest money back into business until we can afford to" she said.

"We?" Mousse squeaked in surprise.

"You planning to leave if great-grandmother go?" she asked him sharply.

"You know that I would follow you to the ends of the earth..." Mousse assured her. "The catering thing's a great idea; a friend of mine is selling his catering business to return to America . I think we could buy his van and chaffing dishes for dirt cheap."

"See!" she exclaimed, "You think like business partner already" Shampoo said.

"Partner?" Mousse asked.

"I can't think of anyone I rather have more for a partner" she purred and kissed him on the cheek, he blushed and she threw her head back and laughed for the sheer joy of it.

They went on a few more rides and then found a quiet bench and started necking with Shampoo's firm bottom placed on Mousse's lap. Mousse blushed when he got hard and carefully pushed Shampoo away. "I think we should find Ranma and Ryoga before things go too far," the love struck virgin almost pleaded.

"You're right," she agreed, she was short of breath and her nipples were hard and that was just from kissing Mousse!

"Shampoo, I thought you wanted Ranma..." Mousse said after trying to smooth his hair.

"I no longer do, I want Mousse. You and I make babies together" she said.

"Now?" Mousse squeaked.

She laughed and cupped his face, "No. We make three babies and have wonderful life together. I want that. Ranma has Ryoga and we all be good friends!" she replied.

"But I've never defeated you, there's no way your great-grandmother will ever agree to our marriage!" Mousse said.

"That's where you're wrong!" they heard a voice say.

Both blushed to find Hitomi standing there, she confirmed her identity by taking off her sunglasses and blonde wig.

"How long have you been standing there?" Mousse demanded.

"Long enough to see that your marriage is off to a good start!" Hitomi said with a grin, causing both Amazons to blush. "Don't worry, your great-grandmother agrees," she assured them.

"How, Mousse cannot defeat me?" she said. Mousse wasn't offended; she was simply stating a fact.

"You get married in Japan and then your great-grandmother convinces the council to accept your marriage. She retires her leadership as she wanted to get married too, but her American husband wasn't in any shape to defeat her. So she started her own tribe in Japan and your marriage was accepted as result. Besides, she had to let you marry or her great-great-grandchild would have been born out-of-wedlock. Nothing like having a bun in the oven to get a marriage started," she enthused.

"Out-of-wedlock?" Mousse said shocked.

"Accidents happen..." Hitomi said.

"We have own tribe?" Shampoo asked.

"Sure, who do you think runs the franchises of the Nekohanten? With the whole world on the world wide web, you don't even have to all live together," she explained. "Just think of what I said" she said and disappeared.

"Shampoo did you hear that? She implied.

"We're going to copulate without the benefit of marriage," Mousse said with a glowing red face.

Shampoo smiled and pulled out the future photo of their family that Hitomi had given her and showed it to Mousse. "Yes and he be the result, and then him and then her" she replied. He went silent, unsure what to say about the proof that his dream actually had come true. "You no want to make them with me?" Shampoo said innocently.

"Of course I do!" he said, still blushing up a storm.

"Then I come to your room tonight? Great-grandmother normally take sleeping pill and snore like banshee," Shampoo explained.

"I would love that..." Mousse said shyly.

"Good, now we go meet Ranma and Ryoga!" she said. They hastily straightened their clothes, blushing they held hands and approached the big top. Their jaws dropped to see Ranma and Ryoga being hustled past them by clowns. Curious, they went inside to find the ringmaster wrapping up his final speech about the newly crowned couple.

"Too bad we no were at circus, we could have been chosen perhaps..." Shampoo observed.

"I don't need to be king, I already have my queen," Mousse said and gave her a happy smile.

**All Hail the King and Queen**

A very impressive looking woman waited in the changing room trailer just outside the theater stage with clothes all lined up for the new queen. The woman was wearing a green tight fitting t-shirt, above a knee length black skirt, along with ankle length high heeled boots. On her blonde head, was a black kerchief with green stripes; similar to the way Ryoga's brown squares on his headband had been scattered around. "Mom won't know what hit her... and to think all I had to do was change my clothes and wear a wig..." Hitomi said to herself, and then glanced to the side; she also had to lie to the current changing lady and say she could have a thirty minute break.

Hitomi clapped with happiness as her bewildered looking younger parents were bodily hauled into the trailer and handed off to her. "What's this about costumes?" Ranma asked her suspiciously.

Her response was to hug the both of them and say in British accented Japanese, "Hello sweetie darlings, darling sweeties. My aren't you absolutely fabulous!" She cupped her hands around a blushing Ryoga's cheeks, "Such wonderful bone structure, you must have been descended from kings and queens!" she cried.

"Actually, I'm from..." Ryoga said sheepishly.

"Silence darling, Nana has to create!" she admonished. "Now you, what a positive angel!" she said clasping her hands and staring at Ranma, who blushed uncomfortably. "You have to go to heaven itself to find this much beauty!" she declared, linking arms with both of them and leading them over to a rack of clothes. "Now for the lady..." she said, holding out a strapless red hoop skirted gown, a la Disney Princess Gown. Ranma gulped at the sheer size of it. It has a red velvet bodies with silver trim on the stays and edging and the skirt had enough crystals on it to denude a chandelier. This came with a red tiara of clear crystals that had red pointed hearts at the top. She couldn't even fathom how to put on the garter belt (which she was assured was much better for warm weather) that she was handed, and bulked at the high heeled shoes.

"I can't wear these!" she protested.

"Of course you can sweetie, put your hair up, a little makeup and jewelry and you'll look like the queen you were meant to be!" Nana said encouragingly.

"But I can't walk in heels..." Ranma protested sourly.

Ryoga was struggling not to laugh at her confection of a gown, when the thought occurred to him that his outfit might be just as bad. However he frowned at the distress in Ranma voice over the shoes. He tapped on Nana's shoulder and motioned her aside. "She really can't walk in heels. I'm sure the rest is fine, but please find her some other shoes," he requested reasonably.

It warmed Hitomi's heart to hear him speaking up for her mom. "I guess some nice ballerina flats would do, sweetie," she replied and Ranma sent him a grateful look. "Now leave... I must work my masterful hands sweetie darling sweetie!" she exclaimed and shooed the lost boy away. She was motioned with her hands for him to go through another set of curtains, which divided up the rather large trailer.

Ryoga nodded once to Ranma, exited the room and vanished behind the curtain. There had been one problem with what the mistress of the wardrobe had asked him to do; he didn't know where his clothes were. So wouldn't wait for her to be done just take all the more time? He paused for a moment and figured that Ranma had already changed. He walked into the room once more, but when he moved the curtains, he saw what looked like Chestnut Fist being done by the mistress of the wardrobe. The mistress of the wardrobe stopped when she saw that someone had entered the room.

Ranma was a bit disorientated, but not dizzy enough not to notice Ryoga. Which caused her to stare at him as Ranma was getting her bra hooked on by the mistress of the wardrobe. "What're you doing in here?" Ranma asked and then saw that Ryoga's nose was bleeding and the lost boy stared for a second longer.

"Hey... eyes up here pal!" Ranma exclaimed, and then turned to Hitomi/mistress of the wardrobe. "Aren't you gonna' make him leave?"

"He's your boyfriend, no? He has every right to see you naked sweetie darling..." Hitomi smiled. Using her chestnut fist again, she took Ranma for a clothes changing whirlwind while Ryoga left the room, blushing furiously.

"I'll just wait for my costume on the other side..." he said.

**The Future**

The atmosphere of the people worried about Hitomi had taken on more of a festive flavor when people sat down to share their favorite Hitomi memories, while stuffing their faces with what seemed to be a never ending Chinese buffet.

Ranma felt sad, but appreciated the support of her friends as Mousse, Shampoo, Happosai, Akane and Daisuke rallied around her, as well as her children and Ivy. She found herself chuckling over the memories that everyone was dishing up for her; Hitomi had been a real handful as a child.

"Remember the year I got her the popular latest doll and she yelled at me that she wanted a GI Joe action figure and not some dorky doll?" Happosai said.

"That was really rude..." Ranma said with a frown.

"Not as rude as when she told me to stick it, I have no idea where a three-year-old kid learned that kind of language" he finished. Ranma tried not to laugh, but ended up throwing her head back and laughing.

"How about when she set fire to my rug and then tried to blame it on the GI Joe action figure I _did _buyher?" Akane added.

"That was money well spent, I hated that rug anyway..." Daisuke replied and draped his arm around his wife.

"You never told me that," Akane said.

"Who do you think paid her to burn it?" he said with a wicked gleam in his eye.

"You didn't!" she protested, slapping him on the wrist.

"We'll just have to ask the guest of honor _when_ she returns..." he said firmly, looking at Ranma as if daring her to protest.

"She'll come back, she's been leading her father and then brothers around since she was tiny..." Shampoo added and everyone shared a sad look.

"Where's the funeral you bunch of sourpusses?" the young Cologne asked. She wore a medieval-style gown of forest green with gold trim and a gold Celtic necklace had been woven into her hair. This strange almost fake look was belied by her henna dyed hands.

Ranma ran and hugged her and then turned to the normally fat, bald man with a heart of gold. He'd been replaced by a blond attractive young man.

"Are you supposed to be a gypsy?" Ranma asked Cologne , standing back to look at her friend.

"No Wiccan. I'm traveling in disguise, you can carry anything you want in your luggage if you're Wiccan and customs doesn't even think twice about it!" Cologne said with a laugh and greeted all the rest.

Ranma was surprised when there was another knock at the door. She opened it to find a small, cute brown haired six-year-old. "Where's Hitomi?" she asked in grown up voice.

"What's that sweetheart? I didn't even see your lips move" she said to her.

Her parents, Nabiki and Kuno stepped into the light and he placed his hand on his daughter's head. They had waited to have children and now their eldest daughter, Mikoto was six and their son, Ameno was two. "We've been experiencing disturbing memories about Hitomi. Has something happened to her?" Kuno asked with concern in his voice.

"You both better come inside..." Ranma said, holding open the door.

"But first would you like something from the buffet?" Shampoo asked them.

"Is that won ton soup?" Nabiki asked.

Once everyone was up the speed, Nabiki and Kuno started reminiscing as well.

"If not for her I wouldn't have my family" Kuno admitted.

"Really? I'm just remembering now how we got together" his wife teased him.

"It's like this..." he said.

**Flashback **

Hitomi wasn't surprised when she opened the door of her classroom to find Kuno waiting for her. Lots of people wanted to know their future's it seemed.

"You're that Hitomi girl," he stated. "The one who looks like my pigtailed girl!"

"Glad you realize that..." she replied.

"Kuno, we can't allow you to be alone with her..." Ryoga cautioned him.

"It's okay Ryoga, I'm sure he wants to talk," Hitomi said. "Besides if he tries anything, I'll send him into orbitm" she assured both her parents. They went down the hall, but soon stopped and kept a wary eye on them while they waited for her.

"Shoot," she said without preamble, her uncle of the future was a kind hearted, upstanding sort of guy, but that didn't mean he wasn't a jerk now.

"You said I would marry Nabiki, how is that even possible?" he asked. "My romantic interests lie in her sister and the pigtailed girl!"

"You told me that you never really looked at Nabiki until one day, someone gave you a picture of her that showed a different side of her and you started to notice how attractive she was" Hitomi explained and she fished out the pictures she'd been taking with Akane's camera, that she intended to show everyone when she got back. There was one of Nabiki caught in a moment of laughing in a light hearted way on a bright sunny day. The sunlight shone in her hair and brought out the red highlights that normally didn't show. She looked to the entire world like a happy-go-lucky teenager enjoying her youth. "Like this one here?" she asked and with a wicked fanged toothed grin, skipped to rejoin her parents. Happy that she had set the events in motion to bring two other people together.

"S-she's gorgeous..." he said in surprise. Later that night, Kuno was still staring at the photo of the suddenly beauteous Nabiki; it was like he was seeing her for the first time. Finally he picked up the phone and asked for her.

"Hi Kuno-Baby, do you need the answers to my math homework again?" Nabiki asked.

He twiddled the phone cord nervously and said with a blush "I was wondering if you would like to get together with me on Saturday?"

"To buy photos? I can sell you some of the pigtailed girl and some of Akane," she replied.

"I-I was... thinking you could leave the photos..." he said, coughing as his blushed deepened., "at home..." he stammered.

There was dead silence on the line. "You want to go on a _date_?" Nabiki asked incredulously.

"I thought perhaps a movie," he said nervously.

"Can it include dinner?" Nabiki asked.

"Any place you want," he replied.

"Pick me up at six and don't be late," she replied and hung up. She smirked while she left her room.

"You look happy," Ranma observed.

"I have a date with Kuno on Saturday," she said.

Ryoga looked at her, "Has he done something to force you to go out with him?" he demanded.

"No honestly, my Kuno-Baby is a perfect gentlemen," she replied and walked away, seemingly happier than usual.

"Do you know what that was about?" Ryoga asked Hitomi who had an odd smirk on her face.

"No clue..." she replied innocently.

"That's how Hitomi got us together," Kuno concluded.

Nabiki smiled "I originally went out with him for the expensive dinners, but then he kind of grew on me..." she added and stole Kuno's final spring roll.

"I wish Chinese food was all she wanted back then," Kuno observed, rolling his eyes while she ate it with dainty bites.

"Well she can have all she wants; we have plenty more in the van. Though we might have to go pick up some more" Shampoo said frowning at how fast their buffet was disappearing. They'd brought enough to feed hundred guests.

Cologne took Shampoo's keys and said, "let the old people take care of that. It's been ages since I've done restaurant stuff" "Do you even know how to drive?" Shampoo asked her.

"Sure Phil taught me" she said and towed her husband after her while two dubious looking amazons watched them go.

**Ranma & Ryoga**

The very second that they finished getting dressed the two had exited. Ranma had noticed something when she turned to see Ryoga. He wore a red velvet version of his normal pants, tall black leather boots and a red surcoat with a black seal on it that was trimmed in silver. He also wore a king's red cape with white fur trim and a silver crown was placed on his head.

"Why don't you have to wear so much junk, huh?" Ranma asked, crossing her arms and glaring at the lost boy, who only sheepishly shrugged with a confused smile. With her hair swept up under her tiara, in her gown and dripping with costume jewelry, he thought she looked so beautiful.

They had spent all week long getting a million pictures of them taken by tourists, strolling the grounds and acting as greeters...not to mention eating tons. Although Ranma had a lot of fun riding the rides, getting free presents from the midway and stuff that, she was glad it was over. Riding the saddle trained zebras in a huge dress had been a tad nerve wracking...and now it was the final night.

"Now everyone lets end this party with a bang..." with that the ringmaster gestured towards Ranma and Ryoga, all the lights in the carnival went dim and a stoplight was trained on Ranma and Ryoga. The two turned to one another and wondered why everyone was staring at them. They figured that they merely had to wave their hands and smile while being close to one another, which Ranma had done by clinging to Ryoga. Though that hadn't been enough for the hungry crowd, eager to see huge displays of affection, like the kind that Ryoga had previously presented to them, but more so this time...

"Everyone... our king and queen shall now end this amazing show with a romantic heart felt moment... but they aren't Romeo and Juliet! So don't expect them to keel over! Unless their hearts explode from them loving each other so much!" That received praise and laughter from the crowd.

"Uh... yeah..." Ranma said, feeling a sweat drop come from her head. She didn't know what they wanted, weren't they already like a couple? It made no sense to her.

Ryoga of course wanted a little romance, but what the ringleader was saying it made it sound like he was trying to lead them. That's when it had hit him, what was one of the simplest and most effective ways of showing concern and love for someone? It was a kiss.

"Ranma..." Ryoga whispered, leaning over to the girl that held onto his arm. "I think they want us to kiss..."

Ranma paused for a moment and pulled back before staring into Ryoga's eyes. This was certainly going to be an odd tale for friends, were all the gifts worth kissing her friend? Well, to her it was... but she had to make sure that Ryoga was okay with it, it hadn't been the first and she knew that she'd have to tell him to swear to never to tell anyone. "I-I'm okay with that... I mean... it's just a kiss right, nothing all to bad... he he..." Ranma said, feeling a nervous sweat drop come from her head as her laughter turned uneasy. She noticed that Ryoga seemed dead serious about this and she wasn't sure whether or not Ryoga would participate in the ceremonial locking of the lips.

"I'm... okay with it..." Ryoga replied.

"Oh..." Ranma said, looking to the side. "But you better swear not to tell anyone!" Ranma exclaimed, panting a bit from her heart racing.

"I promise..." he said, not noticing that Nana/Hitomi had been watching from behind the curtains.

"Kiss... kiss... kiss..." the crowd said, encouraging the two.

Ryoga and Ranma exchanged a nod of their heads and the lost boy closed his eyes and placed his hands on the shoulders of the red headed martial artist and leaned down. Ranma also closed her eyes and leaned her face a little forward as Ryoga drew himself ever closer to her awaiting lips. The atmosphere in the area had gotten so tense that even the crowd had stopped talking, all wanting to see a romantic moment. The ringmaster even stared with attentive eyes.

"Just kiss me already!" Ranma shouted, reaching her hands out and grabbing Ryoga by the collar; bashing their lips together in a deep kiss. The fireworks station had been set for the moment where the two would kiss; fireworks would launch into the air and give a classical lover's setting.

The crowd hadn't expected Ranma's forward move but loved it all the same with their cheers.

Ryoga flinched when Ranma pulled him into a kiss but returned the kiss as best as he could. He had in fact, even deepened the kiss with her and felt that maybe these lips went against his perfectly. Now that he had relaxed, he placed his hands on the small of Ranma's back and brought her closer, forcing Ranma to loosen her hands from his collar and slip her hands around his neck. Though what Ranma hadn't expected was Ryoga's curious decision to enter his tongue into the pig tailed girl's mouth.

"Did you just use your to-?" Ranma paused, staring at Ryoga with a surprised look.

"S-sorry... I-I didn't know what came over me...!" Ryoga said, looking to the side. The crowd had been too busy cheering and watching the fireworks while Ranma and Ryoga were talking.

"Y-yeah... we'll never talk about this again," Ranma said, moving over to the curtains and planning to change out of her queen outfit and redeem that special King and Queen pass she'd been promised, then maybe hit the snack shacks once more before finally going home and forgetting that she just french-ed with Ryoga.

**The Creature is Back**

Rather like in tons of slasher movies, we could see a beautiful young redheaded girl getting out of a large dress with a sigh and heaving it onto a table to be looked after by the mistress of the wardrobe. Slim fingers undid her undo and with a groan, let it her hair fall loose. She seemed to pause for a second wearing just her underclothes, as if hearing a sound and with a shrug, unhooked her black strapless bra and allowed it to fall from her. The stockings she undid and rolled down to be placed beside the dress. A black lace spider-like garter belt join them. Finally she put the bra on the table and slipped out of her panties and put them there too.

With a whoop of joy, she donned boxer shorts, a white undershirt and a too large Chinese outfit consisting of red top and black pants. She didn't see the clawed hand reach into the window and remove the lingerie, nor hear the slight snicker as he held the flesh warmed garments against his cheek.

The girl turned back to the lingerie to place them in the hamper and froze when they were gone. Her knowing eyes darted to the window. Seeing large eyes staring back at her, she cried, "Come here you old freak!" and pulled him up by his purple gi.

"Hello Ranma, I was a tad surprised when Kasumi said where I could find you, but I wasn't expecting such a treat!" he said still caressing the fine lace on his wizened cheeks.

"Stop that!" she cried and snatched then away, Happosai commenced to have a full blown tantrum, where he cried huge tears and pounded his fists against the floor, claiming how mean Ranma was.

Meanwhile Hitomi had lost her disguise and went to join her mother. "Hi Ranma, I thought I would come to see you on your final day as queen!" she exclaimed brightly. "Happosai?" she cried and picked him up to cuddle him, forgetting he didn't know her yet.

His eyes went huge to be voluntarily held against a stacked female body. "Ranma, who's your twin?" he asked in a puzzled voice.

"Put him down..." Ranma ordered Hitomi and Hitomi, recognizing her voice of authority, did.

"Sorry... I'm Hitomi Soatome, you and I are going to be great friends someday," she explained.

"Why not now?" Happi asked with hearts in his eyes. "I mean any cousin or long lost sister of Ranma's is a friend of mine!"

Ranma massaged her head, "It's a little more complicated than that. We need to borrow your time traveling mirror," she said.

"But it's broken Ranma m'boy..." he said, blinking his eyes; being asked such a question when he already knew it no longer worked.

"It's okay, Hitomi, can fix it..." Ranma replied.

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Please share your thoughts with us.


	7. Chapter 7

DaisukiFox:Hey everone! It's me again... well... it has been awhile since anything has been posted in this account. And I decided to post my version of what would happen for the final chapter of TIME CHILD. So, this chapter is almost entirely written by me.

I hope that me and Siddy can write the true final chapter. Though if she continues with these issues she's having... it might never happen. Well, I hope you at least like this version!

Disclaimer:Foxxy and Siddy don't own Ranma ½!

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Happosai couldn't stop looking at the beautiful young girl, the revelation that she was not only Ranma's daughter but Happosai's best friend in the future made her seem even more exotic. She smiled at him shyly while she examined his mirror. She best surprised to find his room such a mess but it kind of endeared him to her even more. This Happosai seemed like an aging bachelor and not how he was in the future when Hitomi's presence in his life filled his lonely existence.

"It's in pretty bad shape" she commented.

"It took a rather nasty tumble" he said smiling at the memory.

"Looks like Cologne 's work. I know you used to have a crush on her" Hitomi said, she snickered when he blushed. "I think it so cute that you have no shame about stealing underwear but blush when it comes to talking about old flames" she observed.

"There haven't been that many" he admitted, awkwardly shuffling his feet.

"There were three to be exact, Cologne, a young farm girl whose father chased you off before you could find out her name and Lola the Human Slinky from a traveling circus" she said as she stirred up her special emulsifier.

"I told you about Lola?" he cried, his eyes huge at the idea that he would share that information with so young a girl. Sometimes the depths of his own lechery shocked himself.

"It was confidential and I'm sure you didn't tell me _all _the details. You're my BFF in the future. You're different from then, you still love women lingerie but you're less lonely because you're a part of my family. You live with us as a respected uncle and have tons of friends," Hitomi said. "Sure you'd like for me to model lingerie for you but never ask me seriously 'cause you love me too much."

"That's my future?" he asked, surprised how close to Ranma he would become.

Arranging the glass, she coated it with the glue and set it to dry. "You're uncle Happi and you are happy," she said.

Happosai studied her to see if she was mocking him the way the present Ranma always did, she didn't seem to be. She remained bright, cheerful and generally happy to be in his company. It was a little unnerving for the aging pervert. "We really are best friends?" he asked her dubiously.

"The best, you one time fashioned for me a princess costume out of your lingerie collection that I needed for a school play when my mother had the flu," she replied.

His jaw dropped at the blasphemy and he stared at her through new eyes, that he would sacrifice his beauties for her must mean he cared about her a lot.

Hitomi studied the mirror to make sure that it was setting properly. She carefully set it down allow it to drying. "Well, this just has to dry and I'll be on my way," she said. "Shall we rejoin the others?" she said.

"Sure, I'm sure Ranma must think I have you at my mercy by now!" Happosai said.

"She knows better than that" Hitomi said and wrapped her arms around his wizened one. She laughed when this caused him to blush.

"You're such a softie!" she declared and descended the stairs with him. She had been distracting him as best as she could so that he wouldn't notice that she hadn't fixed the mirror in the least. She had used an illusion spell that Ivy had taught to her. She knew how to fix it of course, but needed to buy herself a little more time to set things right. Starting with Akane...

**Akane and Hitomi**

Using Akane's own recipes that Hitomi had memorized over time, she gradually started teaching them to her. Finding out that Akane needed reading glasses in order to see the smaller printed recipes, Hitomi helped her obtain a pair. "Okay Akane, keep in mind you just need to follow the recipe. Don't add anything else until you master the recipe and then make a note of anything else that works" Hitomi cautioned her.

"Okay the next ingredient is one cup of salt" Akane read out.

Hitomi almost groaned, "Read it again..." she said.

Akane did and blushed "One cup of sugar," she said with a blush.

"You would have had and saltiest angel food cake around!" she said with a laugh that Akane echoed.

"Perhaps I could have made a nice anchovy icing!" she replied with a chuckle, this went back and forth until they were rolling around on the ground in helpless laughter.

"What's going on here?" Ranma demanded.

"Akane's salt cake," Hitomi said wiping a tear away.

"I was thinking of slicing some pickles for cake toppings," Akane said and gave an unladylike snort.

Ranma had no clue what they were talking about, so with a shrug he left.

"Okay Akane, back to the recipe," Hitomi said.

Over the next few days Akane did indeed improve, until one night she snuck into the kitchen the make a bento lunch for Ranma. She smiled at how good it came out and congratulated herself on finally learning how to cook. She placed it into the refrigerator to present to him at lunch.

The next day at school she was hurt when he refused to eat it. "But Ranma, Hitomi's been teaching me to cook and I've improved a lot" she protested.

"I won't eat your cooking" Ranma said stubbornly.

"I just can't chance it with our big baseball game after lunch" Ranma explained.

"You're a jerk" she said and stomped away. She found herself outside and sat beneath a tree. Tears ran down her face while she hugged the bento to her.

"Are you okay?" she heard a voice say.

"I'm fine" she said dashing angry tears away while she blushed at being caught in such a state by Daisuke.

He handed her a handkerchief and said "you don't look fine. Would you like to talk about it?" he asked her.

Akane found herself explaining how she felt that Ranma didn't like her anymore in a broken voice between sobs. "I made this lunch for him and he refused to eat it" she concluded tearfully.

Daisuke carefully pried it open and admired the well put together bento box, her rice balls had black pepper whiskers and pig noses, the meat balls looked tasty beyond belief and the vegetable that surrounded the shrimps and miniature cuttlefish were trimmed into whimsical shapes. "It smells delicious, I wish a girl would make one of these for me" he said.

"R-really?" Akane said, "would you like to eat it?" she asked.

"If you would let me" he said. Akane watched in surprise how he groaned in pleasure with every bite. Soon she glowed with pleasure and blushed at his praises. She'd never really realized how cute he was.

**Daisuke and Akane in the Future**

"Of course I remember eating your bento, I thought I was going to die..." he started.

"What's that!" Akane cried as her mallet made and appearance for the first time in years.

"What the hell is that!" Juro cried in shocked, never having seen it.

"I meant that I'd heard about your cooking from Ranma and wasn't expecting it to be so wonderful" he finished.

Akane felt her anger melting away "It's good that Hitomi went back or we never would have gotten together," she said as the mallet disappeared. Ranma laughed and hugged her "Relax kids, that was your sexy and cute tomboy Aunt Akane's mallet. She used to have quite the temper when we were younger..." she said.

"It used to send me flying quite often, I almost miss that thing," Kuno said.

**Hitomi**

Hitomi had chosen to stay at the dojo instead of attending school. She had made a valid point that her attending school wouldn't really benefit her and might cause some confusion towards others, and she also made a valid point about Ryoga not attending as well, since she had a few things to discuss with them. When asked what said things were, Hitomi would tell them that it was classified and therefore she couldn't speak about it to them. Soun decided that the future heir to the Anything Goes style of martial arts knew what she was doing and therefore allowed Ryoga to not attend school; plus Soun was glad to have sometime where he didn't have to worry about Ryoga interfering in the love life of his daughter and future son-in-law.

Ryoga casually entered the dojo and proceeded by removing his shoes and walking over to the black haired girl, who was currently seated on a cushion while waiting for Ryoga to take his seat across from hers. Once he had reached it, he sat down and smiled at her. "Hey Hitomi... what is it you wanted to talk about?"

Hitomi looked to the side at this moment and knew that explaining someone's death was never a plesant thing. "I wanted to talk to you about something..."

"Is it about why that special glue is taking so long to dry?" Ryoga asked, pondering the question that had been on everyone's mind.

"That?" Hitomi said, a little shocked to have that asked, though she had already prepared an explanation. "Oh... reason for that taking so long is because..." she paused for a moment, "Well, think about it like a mechanic who's been sent back into the feudal era and only has primitive feudal era tools to work with, how long do you think it'd take for him to make a car?"

"Oh... so, how much longer?" Ryoga asked, glad to know that she wasn't wasting her time and making every second count.

"Not much longer," Happosai replied, "Sorry I'm keeping you from starting your family," she said, smirking at Ryoga.

The lost boy leaned back with a deep blush, "N-no! I like you being here!" Ryoga said, waving his hands around in order to tell her he was glad for her presence, which was true. He was glad to have his daughter over there in this time line... it would in fact feel slightly empty without her.

"Okay, okay..." Hitomi giggled with her hand over her mouth before continuing. "It's not that though... it's something bigger than that."

"Huh?" Ryoga said, tilting his head. "Bigger than you getting back to your time?"

Hitomi was now back to what she had planned on doing and she dreaded the response she was going to get from Ryoga, she had technically lied to them about a few things and would it make things better? Well, she technically never lied, everyone had done the lying for her and she followed. "You know I'm not Akane's and Ranma's daughter... and I'm sorry I ever said that..." she said, bowing her head.

"That's okay, Hitomi.." Ryoga said, seeing how she had lost her cheerful demeanor.

"I know... but everyone just kinda' put me as Akane's daughter and I used it to get closer to you, but, do you know why?" She asked.

Ryoga stopped to ponder for a moment, from what she had said before, wasn't because she wanted to see him and Ranma when they were her age? But why go to that extent with a mirror? It didn't make sense now that he thought about it. Was there a bigger purpose? "What are you really here? I doubt it's to get me and Ranma together, we're already together in the future, right?"

"No... you're not," Hitomi replied, her head even more down than before.

"A-are you saying that you came back to make sure we get together at a sooner time to stop us from splitting up?" Ryoga said, shocked with that idea. He couldn't believe that he had been such an awful future husband that Ranma or him would up and leave each other.

"It's not that either..." with that she slowly rose her head and locked eyes with him before tearing up slightly and embracing Ryoga; knocking him on his back as the black haired Hibiki daughter clung to him. At first Ryoga wasn't sure to what to do, why was she so depressed? It made no sense... what could have happened?

"Hitomi... whatever it is, you can tell me," Ryoga said, in a soothing tone. From there he reached out his hand and placed it on top of hers, hoping for her to relax.

"Dad... in my time you died!" she exclaimed, muffling her tears on his shirt.

Ryoga when introduced to the information of his death. "H-how did I die?" he asked, gulping. In his mind he really hoped that Ranma and his future self hadn't gone into a fight which ended up taking his life. Though the revelation of your own future death was never an easy one to take.

"You fell into a river and died and slowly died as P-chan when we went on a training trip together..." Hitomi replied before pulling back and staring at Ryoga. She saw that Ryoga's own eyes were watering just as much as hers were.

"Hitomi... I don't want to die, I don't want to leave you when you need me most," Ryoga said. His stomach twisted when thinking of leaving them and not being able to be their father, in his mind, a father was always in need whether they leave or not, losing someone was painful.

"Thank you..." Hitomi said, "Mom is so lonely... she misses you the most, she lost the one she loves and sometimes she keeps breaking down when in the house, she can't stop thinking of you... she won't stop thinking of you and she doesn't ever want to marry anyone anymore dad! You're that important to Ranma in my time, please, if not for me and my brothers... then for Ranma!"

Ryoga stared at her with timid tears soaked eyes. "I promise... I won't die, Hitomi..." taking a deep breath the lost boy looked to the side. "I'll do whatever it takes to never, never take you to train in the mountains,"

"Don't!" Hitomi exclaimed, surprising Ryoga. "We love it when you train us! Everything wouldn't be the same if you stopped, it's your passion to train and your passion to be with us... we need both or we won't feel like a family." Hitomi sighed and decided she'd tell him something. "One time... you tried to teach me the ShiShiHoukudan, but, I was never depressed enough to ever use it or master it, but... when you died, I actually mastered it, you being gone made me learn that move... and I hate that I perfected it, Cologne told me those who actually achieve the perfect form have to go through so much pain... so, so, so much pain..."

Ryoga rose to a sitting position and brought Hitomi into a tight hug, which could have caused Ranma or Akane to scream from such pressure, but for someone like Hitomi she easily endured and returned the hug with just as much force.

**Akane and Ranma**

Akane had to remind herself that being too concerned with Ranma's opinion of her cooking, that could only lead to heartache. Though she did take solace in the fact that she would someday be married to him and have a wonderful and also very powerful daughter, and even as much as she convinced herself, she believed that she would one day be his wife and take on the last name of Saotome, Akane Saotome but perhaps she could have Daisuke convince Ranma of trying her food and making him an even closer friend of the family, similar to what she believed Ryoga was going to be when he watched over her children.

And now she was given the perfect moment to set a scene with Ranma while they sat outside; since Akane had called him out there and planned this entire thing. Now how to subtly attempt accepting Ranma? She had always known there was something there for the black haired martial artist, but, now that evidence had been provided to her. She was confident in the future between her and Ranma.

Ranma approached Akane, seeing that she had been sitting down on the backyard porch. The sun had been going down and he wondered what she possibly wanted to talk about. This came as a surprise to him, because, Akane never was one to have a normal conversation with him.

"Hey, Kane... wha'cha wanna' talk about?" Ranma asked.

Akane turned around and smiled lightly at the boy. Her smile went unnoticed as Ranma simply plopped himself down next to her and leaned back a little; his arms supporting him up. "So, this probably has to do with your cooking, huh?" Ranma asked, blinking a few times as he waited for her to start.

She nodded her head with firm determination. "It's about... Hitomi, you know the whole... her being our daughter thing."

"Yeah, I know about that," Ranma replied, half listening to her as the idea of Hitomi rushed into his mind. The black haired girl was certainly interesting, and her image of totally what was to be expected from someone in his family line; say for his father. Other than that she was radiant with beauty.

"Well... her just being around means we're gonna' start a family and..." Akane blushed, looking down and trying to stop her heart beat.

"Uh-huh..." Ranma nodded, once again, too into his own thoughts to consider what Akane said. There was so many attributes to Hitomi that could be linked to him and Hitomi, but, none seemed to follow Akane's mannerisms. The rage could be traced to anyone and he wasn't sure that was really genetic.

"So, do you think it'd be okay if we you know..." Akane said, turning to the boy now and expecting to see him turn to her and return the feelings she had kept bottled up for so long. "If we you know..." she tried to finish but found the words escaping her.

Ranma's eyes widened when a sudden revelation happened, he had seen Hitomi's fang like teeth. And there was only one other person he knew with fang like teeth; Ryoga.

"Yeah, sure, whatever!" Ranma exclaimed, standing up and running over the fence and jumping over it. "I gotta' go Akane!" he shouted, trying to control his breathing now. There was just no possible way that Hitomi was...

The black haired Saotome began walking around aimlessly in Nermia. It couldn't be! Hitomi couldn't be Ryoga's and his child! Ranma certainly didn't like Ryoga like that! They were both guys! Well... most of the time they were guys. Ranma did have his girl form, but, didn't that mean that him and Ryoga had... sex? The idea wasn't as unappealing as Ranma first thought. It scared him to think that the idea of getting in the bed with the Lost Boy didn't sound all that bad.

"Damn it! I-It can't be..." Ranma said, trying to stop the anxiety building up in his chest. "We'd never do that... Ryoga wouldn't... would he?" Ranma said, looking to the ground timidly. Why was he so bothered with this? There wasn't any real proof that they got together.

"Okay..." Ranma said, holding his hands out in front of him. "Maybe... if I really was a girl... I'd go out with him... nothing wrong there, we're close pals... sorta'..." he said, looking to the side. "And this is IF I was a girl! So, that doesn't make what I'm saying weird, right?" he asked himself, smiling with his scapegoat self explanation.

"Now to get back and hang with Hitomi and Ryoga."

**Ryoga and Hitomi**

After having shared that father and daughter moment, the two returned to the dojo. Hitomi had promised to get to work on the mirror and fix the present mirror. Ryoga had trusted her wholeheartedly.

When Hitomi reached the room where the drying mirror was she sighed and noticed that the illusion spell had worn off. The mirror was now back to it's broken state, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the working version of the mirror. She could go back now, couldn't she? Though now that Ryoga would make an effort to be with Ranma, would the time line find it's way to her present? Well, Ranma from the future had used magic to talk to her. Nothing had changed there, but, that was before Hitomi had actively gotten Ryoga interested in the idea of being with Ranma. What would she say now? Probably not much... she sighed and nodded her head. She would stay until she was entirely certain that Ranma and Ryoga would become romantically interested in her. _'Besides... time is on my side...' _Hitomi thought.

**Ranma, Ryoga & Hitomi**

When Ranma and Ryoga would have normally been asked to talk and hang out in their PJ's, they would have rejected the idea. Though since Hitomi had been so insistent on doing it and they couldn't bring themselves to ignore her request.

"So... why was it so important that we be in PJ's?" Ranma asked, having changed into her girl form. If only to feel less awkward while doing it. Her Pj's consisted of her boxers and white muscle shirt.

In Ryoga's case he wore a yellow set that Hitomi had gotten from Ryoga's home. He never liked to mentioned the fact that his parents got him PJ's one time when he came home. He made sure to avoid ever putting them on, simply because, well, he wasn't sure PJ's were at all flattering for someone like him. Especially ones that were entirely a lemon colored males PJ set.

"At least you don't look like a lemon, Ranma..." Ryoga grunted

Ranma smirked and looked over to Ranma, "Yeah, your right." she smirked, leaning on her elbows as her head rested in her hands.

The lost boy found himself blushing when Ranma stared at him in such a way. It was difficult not to consider his future with her, when Mousse had commented on Ranma's girl side, he certainly knew what he was talking about. Luckily for him he was provided by a distraction.

"Back! And I got a bunch of everyone's favorites!" Hitomi proclaimed, entering the room with a tray full of various snacks; wearing what appeared to be a pair of Akane's PJ's. The black haired girl then went over to sit down next to Ryoga and placed the tray out in front of everyone.

"So, I gotta' ask you two, how did you first meet?" Hitomi asked, she was aware that they met in middle school. Though by her time, her mother and father had already forgotten the details from said time. All they knew was that it happened in middle school.

"Huh... that's going a bit back," Ranma commented.

Ryoga stared at the red headed girl with an annoyed look on his face. "Well... it started when we first wanted some bread, you see, everyone would always fight over who got the certain kinds, but, whenever I tried to get mine with my martial arts skills, Saotome here would always intervene with that..." he grunted a little, unable to contain certain anger he used to hold so close.

"H-hey! I tried to make up for it, remember?" Ranma asked, mentioning the time that when he called her out to a challenge again. She had actually tried to make amends by buying him all the types of bread he had beaten him to; granted they became expired; due to Ryoga's unmeasurable amount of time he took to get to the challenge.

"Hey! See, he tired to make up for it!' Hitomi exclaimed, trying to ease her father's mood.

The lost boy sighed and nodded his head, still a little nerve wrecked from remembering. "It's not just that... it was the fact that he didn't make it to the challenge and then went off to train with his dad, I was willing to get past all that until I came across him in Jusenkyo and he knocked me into the cursed spring, from there, I couldn't forgive him, I had to get my revenge and what fueled my revenge the most was knowing that I had another purpose for coming after you, Saotome."

Ranma and Hitomi both stared at him, looking at him as if he had grown a second head. Though Ranma was the first to address what was on both of their minds. "What other motives was there?"

"In the deepest part of my mind... I was angry because you were my only friend and you ended up leaving, no one else wanted to talk to me or do anything at all. I was too awkward around others that didn't know martial arts, I was too scared to talk to any girls. I was content with having someone who could challenge me and push me further than I ever thought I could and by making that battle claim and then you not showing up, it drove me to find you and become the better one," Ryoga finished, explaining himself a little more deeply. "So, I was trying to get my friend back... that was my first motive."

Ranma paused to rub the back of her neck, this was really awkward for her. "Well, if it means anything... you weren't so bad to hang with either, especially when I had to walk you back home."

"Yeah... I think I missed that a lot too," Ryoga commented, smiling now.

Ranma and Hitomi chuckled, yeah, his directional curse could be funny sometimes. "Well, thanks for telling me that, but, it kinda' sounds like a romance story."

Ranma's eyes widened and she blushed slightly, before raising her hand and waving it front of her. "Nah! We're just pals, right, Ryo?"

She noticed that Ryoga seemed to be twiddling his fingers together, which caught her off guard. "Uh... yeah... pals."

Ranma cleared her throat and decided that maybe discussing romantic interest was pointless right now. She already had enough to deal with when it came to Akane. "So, whats say we get some sparing in?"

"I think you'd have a better chance against Ryoga than me mom, remember... future you taught me, so, I know all your moves and most of your newer ones."

Ranma's eyes widened. "Hey... you wouldn't mind teaching me some of-" Ranma tried to ask.

"No." Hitomi replied. "I can't mess with the time line... well... anymore."

"Fine... I'll just fight Ryoga," Ranma smirked, turning to the lost boy. Who had now gotten serious by this point. "Let's see what you got, Ryoga!" Ranma exclaimed, raising to her feet and glaring him down.

"Ranma... we're in PJ's, doesn't it seem odd to you, at all?" Ryoga asked, blinking.

"I've fought naked sometimes, fighting in PJ's is nothing new," Ranma replied.

The lost boy's eyes widened and he felt his nose bleed. He then looked up to the ceiling and fell on his back, his mind overloading from the image that popped up into his head.

"Damn it Ryoga... you're such a pervert sometimes..." Ranma slapped her forehead. "Sometimes this curse can really get on your nerves."

Hitomi chuckled. "Let's watch some TV while he wakes up, kay?" Hitomi asked.

Ranma nodded her head in response and noticed something on Hitomi shoulder. The lining of the pajama collar went down to slightly reveal a small star shaped birthmark. "Huh..." Ranma said, remembering someone mentioned something about a star shaped birthmark. She then figured it was time for some information gathering. "Uh... you get everything ready, I'm gonna' use the bathroom."

Hitomi looked over her shoulder and blinked once, "Uh... okay... I'll try and find us a good show."

Now that the tan birthmark had been burned into her mind, she went over to the fallen Lost Boy and reached around him, she leaned down and pulled his collar down a bit, that's when he came across the red star birthmark. Ranma's eyes widened as she was taken to a trip down memory lane.

**Flash Back**

A smaller kid version of Ranma kicked a younger version of Ryoga back and into the dirt, landing on his stomach and while most of his clothes were torn. The child Ryoga grunted and wiped his mouth, bleeding a little bit from his teeth. "Damn it... damn you Saotome!" Ryoga cried, baring his fangs and looking over his shoulder.

"Stop your whining and do something 'bout it!" the younger Ranma proclaimed. Then he noticed that there was something on Rypga's shoulder, he had to comment on that. "Whoa... did you get a tattoo?"

"Tattoo?" Ryoga wondered, then realized what Ranma was talking about. "This is a family birthmark! I don't need some stupid tattoo!" the younger version of the Lost Boy exclaimed. From there he quickly rose to his feet and narrowed his eyes. "This is where I defeat you!"

**End Flash Back**

"I'-it can't be... no way... it just can't..." Ranma said, unsure of what to do with this found information. She shook her head and chose to ignore it, it was just coincidence. It had to be!

**Ryoga**

When the lost boy had woken up, he saw that Hitomi and Ranma were watching TV. He joined them and stayed pretty silent the entire time, and when he tried to sat anything to Ranma or comment on something funny to get her attention, he noticed that the pig tailed girl didn't pay him any mind. It was kind of heart breaking to him... her he was infatuated with his rival and she wasn't even showing him the slightest interest now. When all was said and done, even Hitomi had to reassure Ryoga that maybe Ranma was just having an off day or something.

Now Ryoga sat on top of the roof top; having changed back into his regular attire. It would just be awkward to sleep on a roof top with pajamas anyways.

He sighed and wondered what must have been going on with Ranma. He knew that his old self would have never been concerned about Ranma, but, they had a future together. That changed things right? They must have had some deep connection in order for him to end up with the pig tailed martial artist. "Maybe... maybe it's not going to happen..."

"What's not going to happen?" Ranma asked, landing on the roof top close to Ryoga.

The lost boy turned to her and blushed a bit, "N-nothing..." he replied. "What brings you here anyways?"

"It's just... a lotta' stuffs been on my mind," she replied, still in her boxers and muscle shirt.

"Oh... like what?" Ryoga asked, leaning down and reaching into his backpack; pulling out a pillow and throwing it down to where he'd sleep. He then rose up to his feet once more.

"Just a lot of stuff... like Hitomi..." Ranma said, sighing and trying to come to terms with what she knew. It wasn't simple to accept the fact that you were going to be a mother someday.

"Look Saotome..." Ryoga said; his tone somewhat cold. "I don't wanna' talk about you and future wife, it's not really my thing."

Ranma noticed that Ryoga had gone back to calling him by his last name, that wasn't a good sign. "Damn it... you know that's not it!" Ranma shouted, glaring Ryoga down.

"What are you on about?" Ryoga asked.

"You know she's really our kid!" Ranma exclaimed. "I just got one question... why the hell me!" Ranma demanded, moving over to the Lost Boy and pulling him by his collar. "I didn't wanna' be a mom, I don't wanna' be married to you, I don't wanna' know I have a great family with you..." Ranma paused, averting her eyes from him. "I don't wanna' say I fell for you..."

As time had gone by, Ranma came to realize that she did in fact feel deep emotions for the Lost boy. It was hard to come to terms with, it went against her entire teachings. Everything that Ryoga stood for was completely different from her's as well, not to mention their fighting styles were different from one anthers. Though Ryoga was able to perform skills from the school of anything goes; thanks to Genma and trying to make Ranma jealous that one time.

Ryoga studied her face for a moment before giving in to his urges. "Ranma..." he whispered.

That caused the red headed girl to look up to him. "What?"

"Just shut up and free me from my lonely life..." he whispered with a few tears cascading from his eyes. "Because I love you..." he sealed the deal with his lips and wrapped his arms around the red headed girl's hips.

Ranma struggled underneath his hold and fought with herself on whether or not she should return the kiss. Was it okay? Was the future with him worth it? Was having Hitomi as a daughter worth it? Was it wrong to think that of her own child? Ranma opened her eyes and still found Ryoga's lips eagerly pressed to hers, trying to reach her. _'Why does this feel so good... I-I ain't supposed to feel this weird around this pig! But-but... damn it!' _she finally shoved past all her disgust and returned the kiss; closing her eyes.

Ryoga sighed contently on the kiss, he thought that maybe Ranma at some point would push him away and try to kick his butt. Though he his fate was renewed when Ranma leaned into it as well. Ryoga became a bit brave and used his tongue, blushing at the feeling of someones tongue on his.

Ranma reluctantly returned the french kiss and moaned a little, getting a spine tingling feeling. Then there was another feeling, but it was comeing somewhere a little lower than the base of her spine. Was that something squeezing her rear?

That was right, Ryoga's hands had landed on her rear. That was enough to shock Ranma way from Ryoga's lips. "Y''know that's not romantic!" Ranma exclaimed, pouting and blushing deeply from the second time Ryoga had grabbed her there.

"S-sorry..." Ryoga said, not really sure why he loved to do that so much. "By the way... it's really nice..."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better about it?" Ranma glared.

"Shut up Ranma..." Ryoga said, bringing his lips over to hers and pecking her. "The only thing I wanna' hear from you is... that you want to be with me..."

The red headed girl groaned and looked to the side. "F-fine... but you better not make me regret this, pig-breath..."

"Thanks, cross dresser..." Ryoga smiled. Then just to be brave once more, he went down once again to cup her rear in his hands.

Ranma gasped before leaning back and punching Ryoga's chest. "We're gonna' have to work on you being such a damn pervert!"

**Hitomi**

Leaned against the side of the house and smirked with her arms crossed over her chest. This was her great ambition and her reason to stay was no longer needed, besides, she had a future husband of her own to get to anyways; at least at some point. She nodded her head and figured that when morning came she'd go back to her time.

"Gotta' say... I'm gonna' miss your teenage years mom-and-pop."

**The Next day**

The previous night, Hitomi noticed that Ranma and Ryoga hadn't come down from the roof the entire time. Curiosity got the best of her so, she ended up checking on them early in the morning. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Ranma and Ryoga were holding each other while sleeping.

"Hey... as much as I love seeing you two together like this, I got something to say," Hitomi commented.

Ranma and Ryoga both shot their eyes open and blushed deeply when being caught in such a position. Ranma attempted to pull back but Ryoga kept his arms around her. "It's okay Ranma... she knows we're going to be together..."

Ranma realized that he was correct and now felt slightly silly for trying to push away from him. "Oh... well... I got a question for you..." Ranma said, narrowing her eyes.

Hitomi tilted her head to the side. "Hm?"

"Why'd you say you were mine and Akane's kid?" Ranma asked.

"I never said I was... everyone just pointed fingers and I went along with to keep the time line in order. And if you're wondering, I didn't come here on purpose, but, when I saw I could save my future, I took up the opportunity."

"Wait... what do you mean... save the future?" Ranma asked, looking towards the future.

"She came here to save me, Ranma..." Ryoga answered, turning to the red head. "You see... in her time, I end up dying when me and you are on a training mission. I turn into P-chan and fell into waterfall, breaking most of my bones and causing myself to bleed from the inside," Ryoga said, looking down. As much as he said he'd never do something like that, he was surprised it hasn't happened earlier.

" No..." Ranma said. "That's not gonna' happen if I've got somethin' to say 'bout it!" Ranma exclaimed, slowly leaning up and pecking Ryoga's cheek. "We've got a future together and you're not getting' outta' it so easily... hell... you die while we're together and I'll drag you form the pits of hell myself, pig-boy!" Ranma said, blushing slightly.

Ryoga found himself touched and threatened in the poetic way he had ever heard. "Ranma... I know this is early and all..."

"Hey pops... that can wait... I'm still right here..." Hitomi said.

Ryoga and Ranma both blushed. "No! I don't mean that!"

Ranma sighed contently and looked up to him. "What's on your mind?"

"Ranma Saotome... I love you..."

Ranma gulped and scratched the side of her cheek, unsure how to respond. She knew that she'd eventually come to love him, but, until then it was technically just some affection.

"And I don't care if you're not in love with me right now... but when you do..." Ryoga smiled softly. "I'll be the happiest man alive."

"J-just don't get all mushy on all of the time, kay?" Ranma asked.

Ryoga nodded then turned to Hitomi. "So, are you leaving us?"

"I'm sorry... but I gotta' go..." Hitomi sighed, "I loved getting to know everyone from the past, you're all so insane, that... it was kinda' fun..." she said, looking down. "But I miss my mom and I have a dad to get back to. And don't worry, you'll be see me again."

Ranma cleared her throat and tried to calm down, the whole, being made love to issue was certainly an unnerving one.

Hitomi reached into her pants pocket and revealed her mirror. "By the way... I never fixed the mirror from this time line... I can't let any of you unstable weirdos have something like this laying around," Hitomi said, squeezing the mirror lightly, causing her to wink into a small burst of light and vanish back into her own time.

"I can't wait to get see her..." Ryoga commented.

"You mean you can't wait to get me in the sack..." Ranma glared, knowing that something perverted must have crossed Ryoga's mind; there was a trickle of blood running down his nose.

"Whatever gave you that idea, Saotome...?" Ryoga asked.

**2 months later**

The Lost Boy woke up from his bed and looked towards his window. The bed sheets currently covering his nude form as he stared at the carpet of his bedroom. He couldn't believe that he had just done the thing most boys have dreamed about, and it wasn't overly romantic either. It was perfect for the kind of people Ranma and Ryoga were.

Ranma had decided that if Ryoga could beat her in a battle that she would sleep with him willingly. He could tell she wanted to do it too, but, when he had gone above and beyond just to finally sleep with her and win... out of all things. He felt more accomplished than ever. It's too bad that such a deal had to take at least a month and a half to get started.

Now he sat there watching as the sun's rays poured into the room. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Ranma was sleeping right next to him, in her beautiful female form; the bed sheets conveniently covering her up to her chest. He chuckled when he heard her lightly snore, it was cute.

The lost boy reached into his covers and grabbed himself some boxers. From there he put them on; while underneath the sheets. Then he moved over to Ranma's side of the bed and knelled down to her. He placed his hand to her stomach and closed his eyes. "Welcome... Hideo, Hidiki..." he whispered.

Ranma stirred in her sleep and slow opened her eyes, she saw that Ryoga seemed to be near her stomach. She groaned and closed her eyes again. "Oh... give me a break... you're such a damn beast man... man legs are still sore from round one..." Ranma complained; hoping that Ryoga would allow her some healing time before they went under the sheets again.

Ryoga's intentions weren't that, but, that was enough to make his nose bleed.

**The future**

Ranma noticed something in her memories, sudden shifts and changes occurring everywhere. Even in the room they were in, Akane and Daisuke vanished, Mousse, Shampoo and Ivy vanished. Along with the Kuno family.

Everyone except for Ranma and her children were left in the room. Ranma placed her hand on her head and felt flushed with all the new memories that accompanied her original memories. "Wait... I can't believe I've said all that and... wait..." she paused and looked towards her own children. They seemed a little older... why was that? She then compared the original time it had taken her family to start and compared it with the new time that she had gotten with Ryoga.

"Wait... why does everything feel so... different?" Juro asked, then looked down at his body and noticed his increased height. He was even dressed in entirely different clothes.

"Yeah... and have we always been in college?" Hidiki asked, turning to Hideo.

"From I can tell... yeah... we have," Hideo replied.

Suddenly a wink of light appeared in the room and Hitomi was once again amongst the family. She fell to the floor and hit the ground, face first. "Ouch!" Hitomi cried.

Ranma turned to the black haired version of herself and smiled, from there she went over to her and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't you ever travel in time again!" Ranma cried, gritting her teeth; trying to ease her tired and worried body. "You almost killed all your brothers and wrecked everything, and not to mention endangered your own life!"

Hitomi knew this was coming and she sighed, "I know and I'm sorry... I just wanted to see dad so badly that I-I..." she attempted to say, until her ears picked up on something.

"Does anyone else hear that?" Juro asked, turning in the direction of the main hallway. He and everyone was about to go over there, until they heard the sound of something oinking and walking in the room; pulling what appeared to be a gallon of ice cream.

"Hey! That ice creams from my hidden stash!" Ranma exclaimed, but then found herself gawking at the site of Ryoga's signature headband. "Ryoga...?" Ranma said.

"Dad..." the other four said in unison.

The small black piglet turned to them and raised one hoof, as if it was his hand and he was waving. "Bwee!"

Before he knew what was happening everyone rushed over to him and grabbed the small piglet into a tight and warm embrace. The small piglet was unsure of why everyone was holding onto him so much but allowed it to happen. Ranma was the closet to him.

"Damn it Ryoga... we missed you so much..."

"Dad... don't ever die... please just don't..." Hidiki cried.

"I won't forgive you if you lost you a second time," Juro said.

Hideo couldn't muster the courage to say anything, but, was also sure he didn't want his father dying on them again.

"Your back... you're finally back" Hitomi cheered.

Ranma grabbed Ryoga and yanked him away from the others. "I need to have a talk with your father... now!" Ranma exclaimed, and ran out of the room. "You can have the ice cream by the way!" she shouted.

Everyone in the room smiled, their mother was certainly back to her old ways. Using her having sex excuse with their father. Hitomi smiled and crossed her arms, she needed her father, there was no doubt about that. Though Ranma needed Ryoga way more than any of them did.

"I love you dad... and I'm glad we can still have more good times." she said, closing her eyes with little tears forming around her eyes.

Everyone in the room joined her, now content with just knowing that their father was around to teach them even more and just to be their.

**Ranma & Ryoga**

Once Ryoga had changed back, he had gotten himself a pair of pants and was now walking to his room. When he had gotten their he noticed that the door was slightly open, he wondered what this was about as he slowly slides the door open, only to be greeted with nothing. "Huh... that's weird..."

When he turned around he noticed that Ranma had jumped into his arms, only wearing what appeared to be a set of red lingerie. The red headed martial artist wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. The lost man only replied with wrapping his arms around hers; eventually reaching for her bottom while all of it was happening.

"Damn it I like it when you touch me there..." Ranma moaned, blushing sligthly.

"What's got you so in the mood?" Ryoga smirked, staring at his wife.

"I've lost ya' for a so long that I can't handle being alone now..." Ranma said, knowing that Ryoga had the same new gained memories as hers.

"Believe me Ranma... I don't wanna' be without you either..." Ryoga said, pecking her lips.

"Now lets get more undressed..." Ranma commented, smirking. Hoping that would bring out some blood from his nose, much like he did when he was younger.

**Moment later**

Ranma sighed contently as she cuddled up next to the Lost man, feeling so right in all best ways. Once again the sheets of the bed helped concel their nude forms.

Ryoga with one arm around Ranma and the other behind his head, stared at the ceiling with a soft smile on his face. "Thank you Hitomi... thank you for saving me..." he said, closing his eyes and relaxing into the moment.

"Love you Ryoga..." Ranma whispered.

"Love you Ranma..." Ryoga replied.

THE END

-line-

Please Review~

Foxes from the foxxy~

DaisukiFox~


	8. Foxxy and Siddy ch7

DaisukiFox:Well, me and Siddy finally got to it. Sadly this will be our final piece together. I've honestly run out of ideas and what Siddy's into right now... well... it isn't my style. But! Maybe if we ever come up with anymore ideas or something, we'll let you all know!

And this is most likely our final piece of work together! ^^'

Siddy: Sorry I've been away so long, I guess that Foxy owns me a spanking. However I decided to revise Foxy's version a bit to include a few more character scenes and change the ending a bit. Other then that, here's to the Ultra Fox, he did a great job without me!

Siddy:We don't own Ranma, we just like playing with him alot.

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Happosai couldn't stop looking at the beautiful young girl, the revelation that she was not only Ranma's daughter but Happosai's best friend in the future made her seem even more exotic. She smiled at him shyly while she examined his mirror. She'd been surprised to find his room such a mess but it kind of endeared him to her even more. This Happosai seemed like an aging bachelor and not how he was in the future when Hitomi's presence in his life filled his lonely existence.

"It's in pretty bad shape" she commented.

"It took a rather nasty tumble" he said, smiling at the memory.

"Looks like Cologne's work. I know you used to have a crush on her" Hitomi said, she snickered when he blushed. "I think it so cute that you have no shame about stealing underwear but blush when it comes to talking about your old flames" she observed.

"There haven't been that many" he admitted, awkwardly shuffling his feet.

"There were three to be exact, Cologne, a young farm girl whose father chased you off before you could find out her name and Lola the Human Slinky from a traveling circus" she said as she stirred up her special emulsifier.

"I told you about Lola?" he cried, his eyes huge at the idea that he would share that information with so young a girl. Sometimes the depths of his own lechery shocked himself.

"It was confidential and I'm sure you didn't tell me _all _the details. You're my BFF in the future. You're different then, you still love women's lingerie but you're less lonely because you're a part of my family. You live with us as a respected uncle and have tons of friends," Hitomi said. "Sure you'd like for me to model lingerie for you but never ask me seriously 'cause you love me too much."

"That's my future?" he asked, surprised how close to Ranma he would become.

Arranging the glass, she coated it with the glue and set it aside to dry. "You're my uncle Happi and you _are _happy," she said.

Happosai studied her to see if she was mocking him the way the present Ranma always did, she didn't seem to be. She remained bright, cheerful and generally happy to be in his company. It was a little unnerving for the aging pervert. "We really are best friends?" he asked her dubiously.

"The best, you one time fashioned a princess costume for me out of your lingerie collection that I needed for a school play when my mother had the flu," she replied.

His jaw dropped at the blasphemy and he stared at her through new eyes, that he would sacrifice his beauties for her must mean he cared about her a lot!

Hitomi studied the mirror to make sure that it was setting properly. She carefully set it down allow it to dry. "Well, this just has to dry and I'll be on my way," she said. "Shall we rejoin the others?" she suggested.

"Sure, I'm sure Ranma must think I have you at my mercy by now!" Happosai cried.

"She knows better than that" Hitomi said and wrapped her arm around his wizened one. She laughed when this caused him to blush.

"You're such a softie!" she declared and descended the stairs with him. She'd been distracting him as best as she could so that he wouldn't notice that she hadn't fixed the mirror in the least. She had used an illusion spell that Ivy had taught to her. She knew how to fix it of course, but needed to buy herself a little more time to set things right. Starting with Akane...

**Akane and Hitomi**

Using Akane's own recipes that Hitomi had memorized over time, she gradually started teaching them to her. Finding out that Akane needed reading glasses in order to see the smaller print recipes, Hitomi helped her obtain a pair. "Okay Akane, keep in mind you just need to follow the recipe. Don't add anything else until you master the recipe and then make a note of anything else that works" Hitomi cautioned her.

"Okay the next ingredient is one cup of salt" Akane read out.

Hitomi almost groaned, "Read it again..." she said.

Akane did, "one cup of sugar," she said with a blush.

"You would have had and saltiest angel food cake ever!" she said with a laugh that Akane echoed.

"Perhaps I could have made nice anchovy icing for it!" she replied with a chuckle, this went back and forth until they were rolling around on the floor in helpless laughter.

"What's going on here?" Ranma demanded.

"Akane's salt cake," Hitomi said, wiping a tear away.

"I was thinking of slicing up some pickles for cake toppings," Akane said and gave an unladylike snort.

Ranma had no clue what they were talking about, so with a shrug, he left.

"Okay Akane, back to the recipe," Hitomi said.

Over the next few days Akane did indeed improve, until one night she snuck into the kitchen the make a bento lunch for Ranma. She smiled at how good it came out and congratulated herself on finally learning how to cook. She placed it into the refrigerator to present to him at lunch.

The next day at school she was hurt when he refused to eat it. "But Ranma, Hitomi's been teaching me to cook and I've improved a lot!" she protested.

"I won't eat your cooking" Ranma said stubbornly. "I just can't chance it with our big baseball game coming up after lunch" Ranma explained.

"You're a jerk" she cried and stomped away. She found herself outside and sat beneath a tree. Tears ran down her face while she hugged the bento to her.

"Are you okay?" she heard a voice say.

"I'm fine" she said dashing away angry tears while she blushed at being caught in such a state by Daisuke.

He handed her a handkerchief, "you don't look fine. Would you like to talk about it?" he asked her.

Akane found herself explaining how she felt that Ranma didn't like her anymore in a broken voice between sobs. "I made this lunch for him and he refused to eat it" she concluded tearfully.

Daisuke carefully pried it open and admired the well put together bento box, her rice balls had black pepper whiskers and pig noses, the meat balls looked tasty beyond belief and the vegetable that surrounded the shrimps and miniature cuttlefish were trimmed into whimsical shapes. "It smells delicious, I wish a girl would make one of these for me" he said.

"R-really?" Akane said, "would you like to eat it?" she asked.

"If you would let me" he said. Akane watched in surprise at how he groaned in pleasure with every bite. Soon she glowed with pleasure and blushed at his praises. She'd never really realized how cute he was...

**Daisuke and Akane in the Future**

"Of course I remember eating your bento, I thought I was going to die..." he started.

"What's that!" Akane cried as her mallet made an appearance for the first time in years.

"What the hell is that!" Juro cried in shocked, never having seen it before.

"I meant that I'd heard about your cooking from Ranma and wasn't expecting it to be so wonderful" he finished.

Akane felt her anger melting away "It's good that Hitomi went back or we never would have gotten together," she said as the mallet disappeared. Ranma laughed and hugged her

"Relax kids, that was your sexy and cute tomboy Aunt Akane's mallet. She used to have quite the temper when we were younger..." he said giving her a fond hug.

"It used to send me flying quite often, I almost miss that thing," Kuno said.

**Hitomi**

Hitomi had chosen to stay at the dojo instead of attending school. She had made a valid point that her attending school wouldn't really benefit her and might cause some confusion towards others, and she also made a valid point about Ryoga not attending as well, since she had a few things to discuss with him. When asked what said things were, Hitomi would tell them that it was classified and therefore she couldn't speak about it to them. Soun decided that the future heir to the Anything Goes style of martial arts knew what she was doing and therefore allowed Ryoga to not attend school. Soun was glad at the same time that he didn't have to worry about Ryoga interfering in the love life of his daughter and future son-in-law.

Ryoga casually entered the dojo, after removing his shoes and walking over to the black haired girl, who was currently seated on a cushion while waiting for Ryoga to take his seat across from hers. Once he had reached it, he sat down and smiled at her. "Hey Hitomi... what is it you wanted to talk about?"

Hitomi glanced to the side and knew that explaining someone's death was never a pleasant thing. "I wanted to talk to you about something..."

"Is it about why that special glue is taking so long to dry?" Ryoga asked, pondering the question that had been on everyone's mind.

"That?" Hitomi said, a little shocked to have that asked, though she had already prepared an explanation. "Oh... the reason for that taking so long is because..." she paused for a moment, "Well, think about it like a mechanic who's been sent back into the feudal era and only has primitive feudal era tools to work with, how long do you think it'd take for him to make a car?"

"Oh... so, how much longer?" Ryoga asked, glad to know that she wasn't wasting her time and making every second count.

"Not much longer," Hitomi replied, "Sorry I'm keeping you from starting your family," she said, smirking at Ryoga.

The lost boy leaned back with a deep blush, "N-no! I like you being here!" Ryoga said, waving his hands around in order to tell her he was glad for her presence, which was true. He was glad to have his daughter over here in this time line... it would in fact feel slightly empty without her.

"Okay, okay..." Hitomi giggled with her hand over her mouth before continuing. "It's not that though... it's something bigger than that."

"Huh?" Ryoga said, tilting his head. "Bigger than you getting back to your time?"

Hitomi was now back to what she had planned on doing and she dreaded the response she was going to get from Ryoga, she had technically lied to them about a few things and would it make things better? Well, she technically never lied, everyone had done the lying for her and she followed. "You know I'm not Akane's and Ranma's daughter... and I'm sorry I ever said that..." she said, bowing her head.

"That's okay, Hitomi.." Ryoga said, seeing how she had lost her cheerful demeanor.

"I know... but everyone just kinda' put me as Akane's daughter and I used it to get closer to you, but, do you know why?" She asked.

Ryoga stopped to ponder for a moment, from what she had said before, wasn't because she wanted to see him and Ranma when they were her age? But why go to that extent with a mirror? It didn't make sense now that he thought about it. Was there a bigger purpose? "What are you really here? I doubt it's to get me and Ranma together, we're already together in the future, right?"

"No... you're not," Hitomi replied, her head even lower than before.

"A-are you saying that you came back to make sure we get together at a sooner time to stop us from splitting up?" Ryoga said, shocked with that idea. He couldn't believe that he had been such an awful future husband that Ranma or him would up and leave each other.

"It's not that either..." with that she slowly lifted her head and locked eyes with him before tearing up slightly and embracing Ryoga; knocking him on his back as the black haired Hibiki daughter clung to him. At first Ryoga wasn't sure to what to do, why was she so depressed? It made no sense... what could have happened?

"Hitomi... whatever it is, you can tell me," Ryoga said, in a soothing tone. From there he reached out his hand and placed it on top of hers, hoping for her to relax.

"Dad... in my time you died!" she exclaimed, muffling her tears on his shirt.

Ryoga when introduced to the information of his death, "H-how did I die?" he asked, gulping. In his mind he really hoped that Ranma and his future self hadn't gotten into a fight which ended up taking his life. The revelation of one's own future death was never an easy one to take.

"You fell into a river and slowly died as P-chan when we went on a training trip together..." Hitomi replied before pulling back and staring at Ryoga. She saw that Ryoga's own eyes were watering just as much as hers were.

"Hitomi... I don't want to die, I don't want to leave you when you need me the most," Ryoga said. His stomach twisted when thinking of leaving them and not being able to be their father, in his mind, a father was always in need whether they leave or not, losing someone was painful.

"Thank you..." Hitomi said, "Mom is so lonely... she misses you the most, she lost the one she loves and she keeps breaking down when in the house, she can't stop thinking of you... she won't stop thinking of you and she doesn't ever want to marry anyone else dad! You're that important to Ranma in my time, please don't die, if not for me and my brothers... then for Ranma!"

Ryoga stared at her with timid tears soaked eyes. "I promise... I won't die, Hitomi..." taking a deep breath the lost boy glanced to the side. "I'll do whatever it takes to never, never take you to train in the mountains,"

"Don't!" Hitomi exclaimed, surprising Ryoga. "We love it when you train us! Everything wouldn't be the same if you stopped, it's your passion to train and your passion to be with us... we need both or we won't feel like a family." Hitomi sighed and decided she'd tell him something. "One time... you tried to teach me the ShiShiHoukudan, but, I was never depressed enough to ever use it or master it, but... when you died, I actually mastered it, you being gone made me learn that move... and I hate that I perfected it, Cologne told me those who actually achieve the perfect form have to go through so much pain... so, so, so much pain..."

Ryoga rose to a sitting position and brought Hitomi into a tight hug, which could have caused Ranma or Akane to scream from such pressure, but for someone like Hitomi she easily endured and returned the hug with just as much force.

**Akane and Ranma**

Akane had to remind herself about not being too concerned with Ranma's opinion of her cooking, which could only lead to heartache. Though she did take solace in the fact that she would someday be married to him and have a wonderful and also very powerful daughter. Even as much as she convinced herself, she believed that she would one day be his wife and take on the last name of Saotome, Akane Saotome. Bu she couldn't get the thought of how cute Daisuki was out of her mind. She thought about how nice his smile was...and blushed. Perhaps she could have Daisuke convince Ranma to try her food and turn him into a close friend of their future family? It would be similar to what she believed Ryoga was going to be when he watched over her children...

And now she was given the perfect moment to set a scene with Ranma while they sat outside; since Akane had called him out there and planned this entire thing. Now how to subtly attempt accepting Ranma? She'd always known there was something there for her romantically with the black haired martial artist, but, now that evidence had been provided to her. She was confident in the future between her and Ranma. With Daisuke as family friend of course.

Ranma approached Akane, seeing that she had been sitting down on the backyard porch. The sun had been going down and he wondered what she possibly wanted to talk about. This came as a surprise to him, because, Akane never was one to have a normal conversation with him.

"Hey, Kane... wha'cha wanna' talk about?" Ranma asked.

Akane turned around and smiled lightly at the boy. Her smile went unnoticed as Ranma simply plopped himself down next to her and leaned back a little; his arms supporting. "So, this probably has to do with your cooking, huh?" Ranma asked, blinking a few times as he waited for her to start.

She nodded her head with firm determination. "It's about... Hitomi, you know the whole... her being our daughter thing."

"Yeah, I know about that," Ranma replied, half listening to her as the idea of Hitomi rushed into his mind. The black haired girl was certainly interesting, and her image of totally what was to be expected from someone in his family line; say for his father. Other than that, she was radiant with beauty.

"Well... her just being around means we're gonna' start a family and..." Akane blushed, looking down and trying to stop her heart beat.

"Uh-huh..." Ranma nodded, once again, too into his own thoughts to consider what Akane was saying. There was so many attributes to Hitomi that could be linked to him and Hitomi, but, none seemed to follow Akane's mannerisms. The rage could be traced to anyone and he wasn't sure that was really genetic.

"So, do you think it'd be okay if we ,you know..." Akane said, turning to the boy now and expecting to see him turn to her and return the feelings she had kept bottled up for so long. "If we, you know..." she tried to finish but found the words escaping her.

Ranma's eyes widened when a sudden revelation happened, he had seen Hitomi's fang-like teeth. And there was only one other person he knew with fang like teeth; Ryoga.

"Yeah, sure, whatever!" Ranma exclaimed, standing up and running over the fence and jumping over it. "I gotta' go Akane!" he shouted, trying to control his breathing now. There was just no possible way that Hitomi was...

**Akane and Daisuke**

Akane was depressed by Ranma's refusal to talk to her about his feelings with her and found herself walking in the local park. She knew that things would work out for them eventually, but why did she feel so confused about her feelings in the here and now? What was the point of trying to learn to be a good cook and great wife to someone who seemed to be so disinterested in her _now_? In fact when Akane pondered it, Hitomi seemed to be more interested in getting to know Ranma and Ryoga. Not that she'd actually snubbed Akane, she hung around with her and taught her to cook, but she seemed to regard Akane more like a friend then future mother. "Why didn't she spend more time with her...why was it always stupid Ranma and Ryoga?" she thought angrily and kicked a pebble as hard as she could. Akane used to be one of the most popular people at her school until Ranma came around and then everything was suddenly, Ranma, Ranma, Ranma. Akane wasn't normally a petty person, but she got sick of it sometimes. Chaos seemed to follow Ranma around, that and strange girls...Akane turned in confusion when someone said "ouch!"

"Who's there?" she called.

"Akane is that you? It's Daisuke. "Someone just beaned me with a rock" he said coming into view. He had an angry red mark on his forehead that was bleeding.

Akane instantly felt bad, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I kicked the pebble in anger" she said taking out her handkerchief and pressing it to his wound. He winced a bit and allowed her to lead him over to the drinking fountain so that she could wet it and replace it on his head.

"It's okay, you would make a great football player with those powerful legs of yours...or nurse" he added at how tenderly she dabbed at his wound and at the look of compassion on her face.

Akane blushed, "I want to be a veterinarian" as she admitting her dream to someone out loud for the first time. She hadn't told Ranma because she thought he would make fun of her for wanting to do something more then to run her family's dojo.

"You would make a great one, I'd gladly take any of my pets to you in the future" Daisuke said.

"You have pets?" she asked him.

"I have three lizards, two birds, a tank full of newts, two cats and a big old lazy dog who's been with me forever" he admitted with a laugh.

"Sounds like you're going to really need my help" she said grinning at him. "I can't have pets because my sisters are allergic to anything with fur" she explained.

"Would you like to talk about what's bugging you?" he asked her.

"No, I want to hear more about your zoo" she replied and took his arm without thinking. Daisuke was surprised that she did, yet it feel natural to have his arm linked with hers. "Is your dog a purebred?" she asked him while looking at him through her chocolate brown eyes, her anger at Ranma momentarily forgotten.

"Oh definitely not, he's a Sheppard/basset hound cross named Prince. He's fat and lazy and well...not very bright. He loves eating mothballs, so I have to be careful with those and I think he has a shoe fetish, he likes to steal my mother's shoes just to hide them. He never chews them, only cuddles them. Plus he farts a lot" Daisuke told her, enjoying her tinkling laugh as he supplied each detail for her. She continued to hold his arm as they wandered throughout the park, which was renowned for the beauty of its gardens; neither of them noticed them as they were too focused on each other.

**Meanwhile Ranma**

The black haired Saotome began walking around aimlessly in Nerima. It couldn't be! Hitomi couldn't be Ryoga's and his child! Ranma certainly didn't like Ryoga like that! They were both guys! Well... most of the time they were guys. Ranma did have his girl form, but, didn't that mean that him and Ryoga had... sex? The idea wasn't as unappealing as Ranma first thought. It scared him to think that the idea of getting in the bed with the Lost Boy didn't sound all that bad.

"Damn it! I-It can't be..." Ranma said, trying to stop the anxiety building up in his chest. "We'd never do that... Ryoga wouldn't... would he?" Ranma said, looking to the ground timidly. Why was he so bothered with this? There wasn't any real proof that they got together.

"Okay..." Ranma said, holding his hands out in front of him. "Maybe... if I really was a girl... I'd go out with him... nothing wrong there, we're close pals... sorta'..." he said, glancing to the side. "And this is IF I was a girl! So, that doesn't make what I'm saying weird, right?" he asked himself, smiling with his scapegoat self explanation.

"Now to get back and hang with Hitomi and Ryoga."

**Ryoga and Hitomi**

After having shared that father and daughter moment, the two returned to the dojo. Hitomi had promised to get to work on the mirror and fix the present mirror. Ryoga had trusted her wholeheartedly.

When Hitomi reached the room where the drying mirror was, she sighed and noticed that the illusion spell had worn off. The mirror was now back to it's broken state; she reached into her pocket and pulled out the working version of the mirror. She could go back now, couldn't she? Though now that Ryoga would make an effort to be with Ranma, would the time line find it's way to her present? Well, Ranma from the future had used magic to talk to her. Nothing had changed there, but, that was before Hitomi had actively gotten Ryoga interested in the idea of being with Ranma. What would she say now? Probably not much... she sighed and nodded her head. She would stay until she was entirely certain that Ranma and Ryoga would become romantically interested in her. _'Besides... time is on my side...' _Hitomi thought.

**Ranma, Ryoga & Hitomi**

When Ranma and Ryoga would have normally been asked to talk and hang out in their PJ's, they would have rejected the idea. However Hitomi had been so insistent on doing it that they couldn't bring themselves to ignore her request.

"So... why was it so important that we be in PJ's?" Ranma asked, having changed into her girl form, if only to feel less awkward while doing it. Her Pj's consisted of her boxers and white muscle shirt.

In Ryoga's case he wore a yellow set that Hitomi had gotten from Ryoga's pack. He never liked to mention the fact that his parents got him PJ's one time when he came home. He made sure to avoid ever putting them on, simply because, well, he wasn't sure PJ's were at all flattering for someone like him. Especially ones that were entirely a lemon colored males PJ set.

"At least you don't look like a lemon, Ranma..." Ryoga grunted

Ranma smirked and looked over to Ranma, "Yeah, your right." she smirked, leaning on her elbows as her head rested in her hands.

The lost boy found himself blushing when Ranma stared at him in such a way. It was difficult not to consider his future with her, when Mousse had commented on Ranma's girl side; he certainly knew what he was talking about. Luckily for him he was provided by a distraction.

"Back! And I got a bunch of everyone's favorites!" Hitomi proclaimed, entering the room with a tray full of various snacks; wearing what appeared to be a pair of Akane's PJ's. The black haired girl then went over to sit down next to Ryoga and placed the tray out in front of everyone.

"So, I gotta' ask you two, how did you first meet?" Hitomi asked, she was aware that they met in middle school. Though by her time, her mother and father had already forgotten the details from said time. All they knew was that it happened in middle school.

"Huh... that's going a bit back," Ranma commented.

Ryoga stared at the red headed girl with an annoyed look on his face. "Well... it started when we first wanted some bread, you see, everyone would always fight over who got the certain kinds, but, whenever I tried to get mine with my martial arts skills, Saotome here would always intervene with that..." he grunted a little, unable to contain certain anger he used to hold so close.

"H-hey! I tried to make up for it, remember?" Ranma asked, mentioning the time that when he called her out to a challenge again. She had actually tried to make amends by buying him all the types of bread he had beaten him to; granted they became expired; due to Ryoga's immeasurable amount of time he took to get to the challenge.

"Hey! See, he tired to make up for it!' Hitomi exclaimed, trying to ease her father's mood.

The lost boy sighed and nodded his head, still a little nerve wrecked from remembering. "It's not just that... it was the fact that he didn't make it to the challenge and then went off to train with his dad, I was willing to get past all that until I came across him in Jusenkyo and he knocked me into the cursed spring, from there, I couldn't forgive him, I had to get my revenge and what fueled my revenge the most was knowing that I had another purpose for coming after you, Saotome."

Ranma and Hitomi both stared at him, looking at him as if he had grown a second head. Though Ranma was the first to address what was on both of their minds. "What other motives were there?"

"In the deepest part of my mind... I was angry because you were my only friend and you ended up leaving, no one else wanted to talk to me or do anything at all. I was too awkward around others who didn't know martial arts; I was too scared to talk to any girls. I was content with having someone who could challenge me and push me further than I ever thought I could and by making that battle claim and then you not showing up, it drove me to find you and become the better one," Ryoga finished, explaining himself a little more deeply. "So, I was trying to get my friend back... that was my first motive."

Ranma paused to rub the back of her neck; this was really awkward for her. "Well, if it means anything... you weren't so bad to hang with either, especially when I had to walk you back home."

"Yeah... I think I missed that a lot too," Ryoga commented, smiling now.

Ranma and Hitomi chuckled, Yeah, his directional curse could be funny sometimes."Well, thanks for telling me that, but, it kinda' sounds like a romance story," Hitomi concluded.

Ranma's eyes widened and she blushed slightly, before raising her hand and waving it front of her. "Nah! We're just pals, right, Ryo?"

She noticed that Ryoga seemed to be twiddling his fingers together, which caught her off guard. "Uh... yeah... pals."

Ranma cleared her throat and decided that maybe discussing romantic interest was pointless right now. She already had enough to deal with when it came to Akane. "So, whats say we get some sparing in?"

"I think you'd have a better chance against Ryoga than me, mom, remember... future you taught me, so, I know all your moves and most of your newer ones."

Ranma's eyes widened. "Hey... you wouldn't mind teaching me some of-" Ranma tried to ask.

"No." Hitomi replied. "I can't mess with the time line... well... anymore."

"Fine... I'll just fight Ryoga," Ranma smirked, turning to the lost boy. Who had now gotten serious by this point? "Let's see what you got, Ryoga!" Ranma exclaimed, raising to her feet and glaring him down.

"Ranma... we're in PJ's, doesn't it seem odd to you, at all?" Ryoga asked, blinking.

"I've fought naked sometimes, fighting in PJ's is nothing new," Ranma replied.

The lost boy's eyes widened and he felt his nose bleed. He then looked up to the ceiling and fell on his back, his mind overloading from the image that popped up into his head.

"Damn it Ryoga... you're such a pervert sometimes..." Ranma slapped her forehead. "Sometimes this curse can really get on your nerves."

Hitomi chuckled. "Let's watch some TV while he wakes up, kay?" Hitomi asked.

Ranma nodded her head in response and noticed something on Hitomi shoulder. The lining of the pajama collar slid down to slightly reveal a small star shaped birthmark. "Huh..." Ranma said, remembering someone mentioned something about a star shaped birthmark. She then figured it was time for some information gathering. "Uh... you get everything ready, I'm gonna' use the bathroom."

Hitomi looked over her shoulder and blinked once, "Uh... okay... I'll try and find us a good show."

Now that the tan birthmark had been burned into her mind, she went over to the fallen Lost Boy and reached around him, she leaned down and pulled his collar down a bit, that's when he came across the red star birthmark. Ranma's eyes widened as she was taken to a trip down memory lane.

**Flash Back**

A smaller kid version of Ranma kicked a younger version of Ryoga back and into the dirt, landing on his stomach and while most of his clothes were torn. The child Ryoga grunted and wiped his mouth, bleeding a little bit from his teeth. "Damn it... damn you Saotome!" Ryoga cried, baring his fangs and looking over his shoulder.

"Stop your whining and do something 'bout it!" the younger Ranma proclaimed. Then he noticed that there was something on Ryoga's shoulder, he had to comment on that. "Whoa... did you get a tattoo?"

"Tattoo?" Ryoga wondered, then realized what Ranma was talking about. "This is a family birthmark! I don't need some stupid tattoo!" the younger version of the Lost Boy exclaimed. From there he quickly rose to his feet and narrowed his eyes. "This is where I defeat you!"

**End Flash Back**

"I'-it can't be... no way... it just can't..." Ranma said, unsure of what to do with this found information. She shook her head and chose to ignore it, it was just coincidence. It had to be!

**Shampoo Mousse and Cologne**

"Yes. Definitely pregnant," Tofu said handing the purple haired teenager her test results with a flourish. He waited to see her reaction and she delighted him by squealing and flinging her arms around his neck. "Hiya, thanks so much Dr. Tofu, now I can marry my Airen" she cried.

Dr. Tofu frowned at that, "Your carrying Ranma's child?" he cautiously asked. Somehow he couldn't really believe that Ranma was sexually active.

"No my other airen, it complicated...and it going to be really complicated to explain it to great-grandmother. But I have faith in word from the future that it all be okay. I send you wedding invitation," she said and with a final bow, left the thoroughly confused doctor pondering her bizarre words. With her hair flying behind her, she drove her bike in the direction of the Nekohanten...and her future.

She thought about what would be the best way to tell Mousse, after all her great-grandmother was away and they were supposed to make a romantic dinner together. She smiled as she thought about the clumsy boy he was and the man he would become and knew that she would influence that. All he needed was a reason to become a man...and now she had it, she thought giving her still flat belly a pat. She thought about telling him subtly over dinner then realized as she wasn't a subtle person; that the direct approach would work best. Flinging open the door she shouted. "Now we know why Shampoo threw up in the mornings," and then stopped short when she realized that there was another witness to her announcement. "Great-grandmother, what you do here?" she asked her.

"My conference was cancelled. Why are you throwing up in the mornings? Why the only time I did that was when I was..." Cologne trailed off looking uncharacteristically startled. She noticed that Mousse looked guilty. "Mousse what do you know about this?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him.

Mousse went ghostly pale, opened his mouth to speak...and fainted, it being too much for him to find out that he was about to be a dad and about to get killed all in the same day.

Shampoo turned to her great-grandmother and gave her the same guilty look that she used to as a child when she was caught stealing sweets, and Cologne could feel her anger drain away. "I submit to your judgment great-grandmother, but I want you to know that I love Mousse and want to marry him. Ranma is already spoken for, even if he doesn't know it yet. I wish to dissolve my marriage to Ranma" Shampoo said in Mandarin.

"Shampoo Mousse didn't force you?" she asked her.

Shampoo laughed "of course not, he would never force a woman, it simply isn't in his nature. I just realized that when he wasn't being clingy that he's handsome, kind, smart...and patient, gods know he waited so long for me" she said smiling at the still prone boy. "Great-grandmother, you were in love with Happi when you were my age and you have to admit that Mousse is _way _better then him"

Cologne smiled "yes love is a funny thing. But I was a young girl back then. What are you going to do about your kiss of death? You can't go back to China until you either marry or kill Ranma" she pointed out.

Shampoo said "you know that marriage to a full blooded Amazon supersedes that, besides I don't want to go back. Mousse and I want to take over the restaurant, marry and have a family. There's nothing for him there, I don't want him bowing and scraping to a girl for the rest of his life simply because he defeated her. He's too intelligent for that, he should go to University and so should I. I've already looked into business course and by my returning to high school part time could qualify for them. Would you deny me the man I love and the family that we are going to have for a custom that I always thought was a little stupid? I don't want a husband who will kiss my ass; I want one who will work beside me for our future. I don't even want to be a leader anymore; I want a future of my choosing. This future" she said showing Cologne the picture that Hitomi had given her. Cologne studied the happy family and the undeniable proof as to who their father was. She didn't ask where the picture had come from; Hitomi obviously had given it to her. Silently she handed it back to Shampoo.

"I was thinking about leaving the tribe myself, I met someone through an online dating site. I've been alone for so long and want to try to being happy again" she admitted as a woman, not as the leader of the Amazon.

"You should go for it, but you don't have to leave the tribe. Hitomi explained what happens to us" Shampoo said and explained it to her.

"An internet tribe scattered all over the world? That just might work" Cologne said thoughtfully and then looked at Mousse again, he was drooling slightly. "So he's really the one you want?" she asked.

"With all my heart" Shampoo said reaching down to stroke him cheek, this woke him up. With a groan he opened his eyes.

"Shampoo I had the strangest dream, you were pregnant" he said sitting up.

"That was no dream Airen" she said.

"So then your great-grandmother knows..." he said and went pale when he found Cologne leaning on her staff and studying him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living son-in-law" she said.

"S-son-in-law?" he stammered.

"Yes you shall be when you marry my Shampoo, now get packing. We have to go to China to get this all sorted out" she said.

**Ryoga**

When the lost boy had woken up, he saw that Hitomi and Ranma were watching TV. He joined them and stayed pretty silent the entire time, and when he tried to say anything to Ranma or comment on something funny to get her attention, he noticed that the pig tailed girl didn't pay him any mind. It was kind of heart breaking for him... he was infatuated with his rival and she wasn't even showing him the slightest interest now. When all was said and done, even Hitomi had to reassure Ryoga that maybe Ranma was just having an off day or something.

Now Ryoga sat on top of the roof top; having changed back into his regular attire. It would just be awkward to sleep on a roof top with pajamas anyways.

He sighed and wondered what must have been going on with Ranma. He knew that his old self would have never been concerned about Ranma, but, they had a future together. That changed things right? They must have had some deep connection in order for him to end up with the pig tailed martial artist. "Maybe... maybe it's not going to happen..."

"What's not going to happen?" Ranma asked, landing on the roof top close to Ryoga.

The lost boy turned to her and blushed a bit, "N-nothing..." he replied. "What brings you here anyways?"

"It's just... a lotta' stuffs been on my mind," she replied, still in her boxers and muscle shirt.

"Oh... like what?" Ryoga asked, leaning down and reaching into his backpack; pulling out a pillow and throwing it down to where he'd sleep. He then rose up to his feet once more.

"Just a lot of stuff... like Hitomi..." Ranma said, sighing and trying to come to terms with what she knew. It wasn't simple to accept the fact that you were going to be a mother someday.

"Look Saotome..." Ryoga said; his tone somewhat cold. "I don't wanna' talk about you and future wife, it's not really my thing."

Ranma noticed that Ryoga had gone back to calling him by his last name, that wasn't a good sign. "Damn it... you know that's not it!" Ranma shouted, glaring Ryoga down.

"What are you on about?" Ryoga asked.

"You know she's really our kid!" Ranma exclaimed. "I just got one question... why the hell me!" Ranma demanded, moving over to the Lost Boy and pulling him by his collar. "I don't wanna' be a mom, I don't wanna' be married to you, I don't wanna' know I have a great family with you..." Ranma paused, averting her eyes from him. "I don't wanna' say I fell for you..."

As time had gone by, Ranma came to realize that she did in fact feel deep emotions for the Lost boy. It was hard to come to terms with it, it went against her entire teachings. Everything that Ryoga stood for was completely different from her's as well, not to mention their fighting styles were different from one another's. Though Ryoga was able to perform skills from the school of anything goes; thanks to Genma and trying to make Ranma jealous that one time.

Ryoga studied her face for a moment before giving in to his urges. "Ranma..." he whispered.

That caused the redheaded girl to look up to him. "What?"

"Just shut up and free me from my lonely life..." he whispered with a few tears cascading from his eyes."Because I love you..." he sealed the deal with his lips and wrapped his arms around the redheaded girl's hips.

Ranma struggled underneath his hold and fought with herself on whether or not she should return the kiss. Was it okay? Was the future with him worth it? Was having Hitomi as a daughter worth it? Was it wrong to think that of her own child? Ranma opened her eyes and still found Ryoga's lips eagerly pressed to hers, trying to reach her. _'Why does this feel so good... I-I ain't supposed to feel this weird around this pig! But-but... damn it!' _she finally shoved past all her disgust and returned the kiss; closing her eyes.

Ryoga sighed contently at the kiss; he thought that maybe Ranma at some point would push him away and try to kick his butt. Though his faith was renewed when Ranma leaned into it as well. Ryoga became a bit brave and used his tongue, blushing at the feeling of someone's tongue on his.

Ranma reluctantly returned the french kiss and moaned a little, getting a spine tingling feeling. Then there was another feeling, but it was coming from somewhere a little lower than the base of her spine. Was that something squeezing her rear?

That was right; Ryoga's hands had landed on her rear. That was enough to shock Ranma way from Ryoga's lips. "Y''know that's not romantic!" Ranma exclaimed, pouting and blushing deeply from the second time Ryoga had grabbed her there.

"S-sorry..." Ryoga said, not really sure why he loved to do that so much. "By the way... it's really nice..."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better about it?" Ranma glared.

"Shut up Ranma..." Ryoga said, bringing his lips over to hers and pecking her. "The only thing I wanna' hear from you is... that you want to be with me..."

The red headed girl groaned and looked to the side. "F-fine... but you better not make me regret this, pig-breath..."

"Thanks cross dresser..." Ryoga smiled. Then just to be brave once more, he reached down once again to cup her rear in his hands.

Ranma gasped before leaning back and punching Ryoga's chest. "We're gonna' have to work on you being such a damn pervert!" Ryoga merely chuckled and gave one his favourite parts of her a firm squeeze.

**Hitomi**

Hitomi leaned against the side of the house and smirked with her arms crossed over her chest. This was her great ambition and her reason to stay was no longer needed, besides, she had a future husband of her own to get to anyways; at least at some point. She nodded her head and figured that when morning came she'd go back to her time.

"Gotta' say... I'm gonna' miss your teenage years mom-and-pop."

**The Next day**

The previous night, Hitomi noticed that Ranma and Ryoga hadn't come down from the roof the entire time. Curiosity got the best of her so, she ended up checking on them early in the morning. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Ranma and Ryoga were holding each other while sleeping.

"Hey... as much as I love seeing you two together like this, I got something to say," Hitomi commented.

Ranma and Ryoga both shot their eyes open and blushed deeply at being caught in such a position. Ranma attempted to pull back but Ryoga kept his arms around her. "It's okay Ranma... she knows we're going to be together..."

Ranma realized that he was correct and now felt slightly silly for trying to push away from him. "Oh... well... I got a question for you..." Ranma said, narrowing her eyes.

Hitomi tilted her head to the side. "Hm?"

"Why'd you say you were mine and Akane's kid?" Ranma asked.

"I never said I was... everyone just pointed fingers and I went along with to keep the time line in order. And if you're wondering, I didn't come here on purpose, but, when I saw I could save my future, I took up the opportunity."

"Wait... what do you mean... save the future?" Ranma asked, looking towards the future.

"She came here to save me, Ranma..." Ryoga answered, turning to the redhead. "You see... in her time, I end up dying when me and you are on a training mission. I turn into P-chan and fell into waterfall, breaking most of my bones and causing myself to bleed from the inside," Ryoga said, looking down. As much as he said he'd never do something like that, he was surprised it hasn't happened earlier.

" No..." Ranma said. "That's not gonna' happen if I've got somethin' to say 'bout it!" Ranma exclaimed, slowly leaning up and pecking Ryoga's cheek. "We've got a future together and you're not getting' outta' it so easily... hell... you die while we're together and I'll drag you form the pits of hell myself, pig-boy!" Ranma said, blushing slightly.

Ryoga found himself touched and threatened in the most poetic way he had ever heard. "Ranma... I know this is early and all..."

"Hey pops... that can wait... I'm still right here..." Hitomi said.

Ryoga and Ranma both blushed. "No! I don't mean that!"

Ranma sighed contently and looked up to him. "What's on your mind?"

"Ranma Saotome... I love you..."

Ranma gulped and scratched the side of her cheek, unsure how to respond. She knew that she'd eventually come to love him, but, until then it was technically just some affection.

"And I don't care if you're not in love with me right now... but when you do..." Ryoga smiled softly. "I'll be the happiest man alive."

"J-just don't get all mushy on me all of the time, kay?" Ranma asked.

Ryoga nodded then turned to Hitomi. "So, are you leaving us?"

"I'm sorry... but I gotta' go..." Hitomi sighed, "I loved getting to know everyone from the past, you're all so insane, that... it was kinda' fun..." she said, looking down."But I miss my mom and I have a dad to get back to. And don't worry; you'll be see me again."

Ranma cleared her throat and tried to calm down, the whole; being made love to issue was certainly an unnerving one.

Hitomi reached into her pants pocket and revealed her mirror. "By the way... I never fixed the mirror from this time line... I can't let any of you unstable weirdos have something like this laying around," Hitomi said, squeezing the mirror lightly the though of how her mother was missing her, this caused a single tear to fall on it's surface, causing her to wink into a small burst of light and vanish back into her own time.

"I can't wait to get see her..." Ryoga commented.

"You mean you can't wait to get me in the sack..." Ranma glared, knowing that something perverted must have crossed Ryoga's mind; there was a trickle of blood running down his nose.

"Whatever gave you that idea, Saotome...?" Ryoga asked innocently.

**Show Down at the Tendo Dojo**

"You will not marry a boy! You were raised to be a man amongst men, not some pervert!" Genma cried, his face was purple with rage as he watched his son/daughter hold hands with her old friend.

"Too bad Pop 'cause I'm marrying Ryoga whether you like it or not," she snapped back and squeezed Ryoga's hand.

"But what of Akane and my dojo? How could you hurt my little girl like this?" Soun sobbed.

Akane could only watch as what she had started to suspect was beamed into harsh reality. Ranma was in love with someone else and another boy no less! She struggled, trying to figure out how she felt about it and realized that it didn't bother her as much as it should, but that could have been because Daisuke had come over to help her fix dinner.

"Say something Akane," Nabiki said as she wildly snapped pictures of the proceedings.

Akane turned to look at Daisuke, who wisely as keeping his mouth shut and found the courage she was looking for. "I don't mind if they want to get married," she replied, giving her ex-fiancé a smile. "Dad, by trying to force us together you never gave us a chance to make up our own minds. Perhaps we would have had a chance if we had just been left alone to discover our true feelings for each other, than perhaps things would have turned out different? But I won't stand in the way of true love...even if it's a little weird. Things happen for a reason and perhaps that's what Ranma's curse is about, Ryoga's straight and they couldn't be together otherwise. Whatever, I wish you two the best," she said to them.

"Thanks Akane," Ranma said with a friendly smile.

"Akane don't go along with this nonsense. You will never inherit this dojo unless you marry my Akane...or choose one of my other daughters to marry!" Soun snapped.

"So all of your daughters are so interchangeable?" Ryoga asked coldly.

"Of course not, but naturally it has to be one of them or you can forget about ever having this dojo!" Soun said desperately.

"I don't want the dojo..." Akane added.

"And you can forget about ever calling yourself a Saotome or having anything to do with our school again. You can't teach it without our authorization!" Genma countered. To their surprise Ranma and Ryoga just exchanged glances and smiled. They knew the future and it gave them confidence.

"No problem Pop, I'm going to be a Hibiki anyway. Besides Ryoga's going to build us our own dojo to run," she explained with a shrug.

"Might I impose for a second?" Hopposai said. "I think you're wrong to try and block this marriage. Ryoga's an apt pupil and would be an excellent co-heir to our school. Besides I know Akane has other plans for her life," he added smiling at the petit blue haired girl.

"How did you know?" she stammered.

"I found your university brochures when I was raiding your panty drawer. I did some research and think that this one has the best program for you to study to become a veterinarian, dear..." he said holding out the brochure to her.

"My Akane's going to be a housewife just like her mother was!" Soun exploded.

"No I'm not dad, I'm going to study hard and become a vet just like I planned. I can still be a wife and mother too. It's not like you tried to train me in domestics arts anyway," she added, looking shyly at Daisuke, who blushed.

Happosai turned to Ranma and handed him a scroll. "Ranma, you are now a master of the school of martial arts of anything goes. You earned it," he said and then glared at his students. "You don't get to choose who inherits my school, my school, my choice!" he challenged.

Ranma was touched "But I never defeated you..." she pointed out.

"Let's just say that you did and leave it at that, you're the best student this martial arts has ever had. Post this on any dojo wall with pride and teach the school to many generations to come!" Happosai proclaimed.

"You can't do this master!" Genma cried.

"He's not your son, remember? I get to pick my teachers and I choose him!" Happosai said with finality in his voice.

"And where are you going to find the money to build this new dojo?" Soun said.

"I'm going to use my trust fund money," Ryoga calmly explained.

"Trust fund?" Soun echoed stupidly.

"My great-grandmother was quite wealthy and left everything to me. How did you think I pay my way around the world? I could have taken planes and limos everywhere but like to walk," he replied.

"Wait you're rich?" Ranma said in shock.

"We're stinking rich babe..." Ryoga replied.

Genma and Soun looked at each other with dollars signs in their eyes.

"I suppose we could come to some arrangement regarding the dojo, after all Ranma is the co-heir and a master now..." Soun suggested.

"Welcome to the family son!" Genma said, pumping Ryoga's hand.

**Nabiki and Kuno **

They lay in bed together watching the CD of the meeting and Kuno leaned up and regarded her, "is that how your father's going to react when we tell him that we're engaged?" he asked.

"Daddy always did like money when he doesn't have to earn it himself..." Nabiki replied, propping herself up on her elbow.

"Great I'm marrying into a family of money grubbers," Kuno complained.

She touched his back with her soft hands "Kasumi's not, Akane's not and I must have half of your fortune already from all those pictures I've sold you over the years, so I don't need your money" Nabiki replied. "Besides we don't have to tell them right away, I say we wait until we graduate...or have our first kid," she added

"You drive a hard bargain" he said.

"I wouldn't want the people in our high school to think I'm going soft. I have my hard, cold hearted reputation to maintain" she said, giving him wide, innocent eyes.

"I'll show you hard..." Kuno said with a growl, which was echoed by her laughter. They made love surrounded by pictures of the two of them together, enjoying life and their relationship; these had replaced the pictures of Akane and the Pigtailed Girl.

**2 months later**

The Lost Boy woke up from his bed and looked towards his window. The bed sheets were currently covering his nude form as he stared at the carpet of his bedroom. He couldn't believe that he had just done the thing most boys have dreamed about, and it wasn't overly romantic either. It was perfect for the kind of people Ranma and Ryoga were.

Ranma had decided that if Ryoga could beat her in a battle that she would sleep with him willingly. He could tell she wanted to do it too, but, when he had gone above and beyond just to finally sleep with her and win... out of all things. He felt more accomplished than ever. It's too bad that such a deal had to take at least a month and a half to get started.

Now he sat there watching as the sun's rays poured into the room. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Ranma was sleeping right next to him in her beautiful female form; the bed sheets were conveniently covering her up to her chest. He chuckled when he heard her lightly snoring, it was cute.

The lost boy reached under the covers and grabbed himself some boxers. From there he put them on while underneath the sheets. Then he moved over to Ranma's side of the bed and kneeled over her. He placed his hand to her stomach and closed his eyes. "Welcome... Hideo, Hidiki..." he whispered.

Ranma stirred in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes; she saw that Ryoga seemed to be near her stomach. She groaned and closed her eyes again. "Oh... give me a break... you're such a damn beast man... my legs are still sore from round one..." Ranma complained; hoping that Ryoga would allow her some healing time before they went under the sheets again.

Ryoga's intentions weren't that, but, that was enough to make his nose bleed.

**The future**

Hitomi noticed something in her memories, sudden shifts and changes occurring everywhere. Everyone there seemed slight altered, some taller, some a little older and everyone wore party clothes. Everyone was there, the Kuno family, the Mu family, her Aunt Akane and Daisuke, even Cologne and Phil who she hadn't actually ever met in person. She looked down to find herself wearing a beautiful red cheongsam with black braid trim and remembered that it was her engagement party. She blushed when she looked at her hot fiancé, Reizo.

"Welcome to the family," aunt Akane said, giving her an affection hug. "I know that it isn't every girl who wants to get engaged at eighteen. I hope that I haven't been rushing you the way our parents tried to do to Ranma and I," she said nervously.

Hitomi was astounded for a second. She was eighteen? Then the memories came flooding back, "Its okay, we're going to wait until after our graduation to marry. Rush me? You've been like a second mother to me" she replied hugging her.

"Is our catering to your liking?" Shampoo asked her nervously.

Hitomi laughed and hugged her too, "Everything's perfect!" she assured her and strolled around the room to see the changes in everyone. Everyone seemed to be there...except for her father. The biggest surprise was the green haired baby the older Ivy was holding. "Who's that?" she asked in surprised.

"Great-great-grandmother's and Phil's daughter, Jennifer-Jade" she said with a laugh, indicating to the young Cologne.

"Apparently the cursed spring waters even reverses old plumbing," she said with a shrug. "I'm not too worried, I've lasted over three hundred years, what are the eighteen more years that it takes to raise a kid," she said.

"How _is_ Jennifer-Jade related to Shampoo?" Hitomi asked Mousse, mystified.

"We don't even want to wager a guess..." Mousse replied ruefully.

**Other people were Having to Adjust as Well**

Ranma placed her hand on her head and felt flushed with all the new memories that accompanied her original memories. "Wait... I can't believe I've said all that and... wait..." she paused and looked towards her own children. They seemed a little older... why was that? She then compared the original time it had taken her family to start and compared it with the new time that she had gotten together with Ryoga.

"Wait... why does everything feel so... different?" Juro asked, then looked down at his body and noticed his increased height. He was even dressed in entirely different clothes.

"Yeah... and have we always been in college?" Hidiki asked, turning to Hideo.

"From what I can tell... yeah... we have," Hideo replied.

Ranma turned to the black haired version of herself and smiled, from there she went over to her and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't you ever travel in time again!" Ranma cried, gritting her teeth; trying to ease her tired and worried body. "You almost killed all your brothers and wrecked everything, and not to mention endangered your own life!"

Hitomi knew this was coming and she sighed, "I know and I'm sorry... I just wanted to see dad so badly that I-I..." she attempted to say, until her ears picked up on something.

"Does anyone else hear that?" Juro asked, turning in the direction of the main hallway. He and everyone was about to go over there, until they heard the sound of something oinking and a small black pig walked into the room; pulling what appeared to be a gallon of ice cream that he'd wrapped his neckerchief around.

"Hey! That ice creams from my hidden stash!" Ranma exclaimed, but then found herself gawking at the sight of Ryoga's signature headband. "Ryoga...?" Ranma said.

"Dad..." the other four said in unison.

The small black piglet turned to them and raised one hoof, as if it was his hand he was waving. "Bwee!"

Before he knew what was happening everyone had rushed over to him and grabbed the small piglet into a tight and warm embrace. The small piglet was unsure of why everyone was holding onto him so much but allowed it to happen. Ranma was the closest to him.

"Damn it Ryoga... we missed you so much..."

"Dad... don't ever die... please just don't..." Hidiki cried.

"I won't forgive you if we lost you a second time," Juro said.

Hideo couldn't muster the courage to say anything, but, was also sure he didn't want his father dying on them again.

"Your back... you're finally back," Hitomi cheered.

Ranma grabbed Ryoga and yanked him away from the others. "I need to have a talk with your father... now!" Ranma exclaimed, and ran out of the room. "You can have the ice cream by the way!" she shouted.

Everyone in the room smiled, their mother and friend was certainly back to her old ways. Using her having sex excuse with their father. Hitomi smiled and crossed her arms, she needed her father, there was no doubt about that. Though Ranma needed Ryoga way more than any of them did.

"I love you dad... and I'm glad we can still have more good times." she whispered, closing her eyes with little tears forming around her eyes.

Everyone in the room joined her, now content with just knowing that their father and friend was there with them. Reizo took Hitomi's hand and she stared into his face. He had his mother's large, limpid brown eyes and dark blue hair and his father's attractive boyish features and easy charm. Hitomi looked around at everyone, basking in their love. She'd met her uncles and aunts in the past when they'd all been unformed teenagers and they'd all blossomed and flourished with time to become the diamonds that she knew now. Petty jealousies and grudges had been set aside in favour of lasting friendships. Hitomi realized that she was surrounded by her past and her future and was perfectly content to be in the here and the now. She would keep her mirror as a precious memento but doubted she would ever need to use it again, she was too happy being where she was.

**Ranma & Ryoga**

Once Ryoga had changed back, he had gotten himself a pair of pants and was now walking to his room. When he had gotten there he noticed that the door was slightly open, he wondered what this was about as he slowly slid the door open, only to be greeted with nothing. "Huh... that's weird..."

When he turned around he noticed that Ranma had jumped into his arms, wearing only what appeared to be a set of red lingerie. The redheaded martial artist wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips to his. The lost man replied by wrapping his arms around hers; eventually reaching for her bottom while all of it was happening. "What gives? I wasn't gone that long. I got the ice cream like you asked to me to, to go with Akane's famous devil's food cake, but got caught in the rain and slightly lost. You know I always find my way back to you..." he stammered. He wanted to add "why is there a freezer in the dojo that looks like a wooden crate labeled, training swords?" but was far too distracted for that. After all they didn't even use wooden practice swords for their martial arts.

"Damn it I like it when you touch me there..." Ranma moaned, blushing slightly.

"What's got you so in the mood?" Ryoga smirked, staring at his wife.

"I've lost ya' for a so long that I can't handle being alone now..." Ranma said, knowing that Ryoga had the same newly gained memories as hers.

"Believe me Ranma... I don't wanna' be without you either..." Ryoga said, pecking her lips.

"Now lets get more undressed..." Ranma commented, smirking. Hoping that would bring out some blood from his nose, much like he did when he was younger.

**Moments later**

Ranma sighed contently as she cuddled up next to the Lost man, feeling so right in all best ways. Once again the sheets of the bed helped conceal their nude forms.

Ryoga with one arm wrapped around Ranma and the other behind his head and he stared at the ceiling with a soft smile on his face. "Thank you Hitomi... thank you for saving me..." he said, closing his eyes and relaxing into the moment.

"Love you Ryoga..." Ranma whispered.

"Love you Ranma..." Ryoga replied.

* * *

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